


I'm a Rocket Man

by louistomlinsons, Thingssicant



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alien Harry Styles, Aliens, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Gay Mutant Road Trip, Humor, Light Angst, M/M, OT5 Friendship (One Direction), Road Trips, Strangers to Lovers, Suspension Of Disbelief
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:22:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 47,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24125095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/louistomlinsons/pseuds/louistomlinsons, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thingssicant/pseuds/Thingssicant
Summary: All he could hear were the faint sounds of Pina Colada coming from the radio and his own heart beating erratically against his chest.“Oops,” he heard coming from the other side of the front window. He quickly pushed the grey rubber towards the back of the car, the rubber of the thing groaning and squeaking as he did so. Finally, after wrestling the thing away from him, Harry came into view, face pressed against the other side of the window.“Hi.” Louis smiled, looking towards Harry, eyes curious. He almost got lost in the way Harry’s face was so cutely pinched, green eyes glowing in the sunlight. He was brought back to reality when Harry tried to move, causing the grey whatever it was to push against Louis again. “What the fuck is this?”“Uhh... it’s Randy?”or, Niall is an investigative journalist, Liam is his biggest fan, Zayn is just along for the ride, and Harry probably isn’t an alien. A roadtrip au no one asked for.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 16
Kudos: 94
Collections: One Direction Big Bang Round 3





	I'm a Rocket Man

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'd like to take a moment to dedicate this entire fic to [Kirstin](https://adoredontour.tumblr.com/) Not only did she listen to me ramble on about it for over a year, she also came and helped me write half of it when I never thought I would get it done. She's the best person ever and you all can thank her that this fic exists! Send her all the love! She deserves it! (YEEHAW)
> 
> This fic has been my baby for the last year and a half, it's filled with fun and nonsense and I hope it brings a smile during these hard times.
> 
> Thanks to [ponymom-stuff](https://ponymom-stuff.tumblr.com/) For the moodboard!  
>   
> Follow us on tumblr [Here](https://slowlyseducedbycurls.tumblr.com/) and [Here](https://adoredontour.tumblr.com/)

_Harry had never felt cold water in his life, not water this cold anyway. He tried to get his bearings straight but it was so dark. He couldn’t believe his ship had landed in water and not on top of that white house Simon had been talking about. He had evacuated his ship a while ago, but it was still dark out and he was starting to get cold. He wished he still had his space suit on but he ditched that for human clothes once he reached the moon._

_He was on his back, letting the waves take him while he looked up at the stars when he realized he was thirsty. He smiled to himself; what a perfect place to be thirsty!A giant pool of water. Harry had heard humans drank cold water because it was more refreshing. That was human 101. He moved so he was fully in the water again, only his head above the surface and shivered slightly from the cold. He took a big gulp of water and fucking choked._

_He sputtered and coughed, trying to get the water out of his body. It felt like it was everywhere, up his nose and all the way down his throat. He spit out as much as he could then proceeded to throw up. He wasn’t sure if it was from the water or the rockiness of the waves. He looked at the little pile and quickly swam the other way, hoping to find land soon._

👽

“Sir, could you put your seat back up into its upright position?” a stewardess asked, startling Louis awake. His eyes flew open and he nodded quickly, rubbing the sleep from them as he pushed his seat up. The stewardess moved ahead, collecting garbage and getting people to put their tray tables up.

“Could you open your window, mate?” the guy beside him asked. He thought his name was Niall but couldn’t remember. Jet lag could be a bitch sometimes.

“Yeah, sure,” he said, sliding the window open. Both boys' eyes squinted slightly from the brightness, but what came into Louis’ sight was just pure magic.

Mountains. He knew the west coast was covered in them but he never thought they would be this beautiful. He could see roads winding through them and tiny homes all along them and then, what he was really waiting for; the ocean. Mountain covered land led up to beautiful beaches that lined the west coast in all their glory. It was just -

“Fucking beautiful, innit?” probably Niall said, Irish accent coming through strongly. Louis hadn’t noticed it before, but he had also been sleeping most of this flight.

“It really is,” Louis said, smiling to himself. The closer they got to LA, the more the buildings started to appear. Louis was in awe.

“First time in America?” Niall asked, laughing at him slightly. He hadn’t realized he practically had his face pressed against the window, blocking any sort of view from Niall. His eyes had spots when he moved back, the bright LA sun now glowing in the cabin.

“Yeah, real different from the UK, isn’t it?”

“Very,” Niall agreed, leaning over so he could see out the tiny window. “What brings you here?”

“Road trip. Got a campervan lined up, one of those old VW ones,” Louis said. He could hardly keep the smile from his face.

“You know those are like, huge pieces of shit right?” Niall asked, laughing as he said it.

“They’re what?”

“They’re horrible. Break down all the time, super difficult to drive too. Can you even drive standard?”

Louis fish mouthed, too stunned to say anything to that. He did know how to drive standard, for the most part at least, but didn’t think much other than the van was cheap and looked good.

“You just got it because it looked good, didn’t you?” Niall teased. “It’s okay, we’ve all been there. I’ve used one for work and it looked sick in the photos.”

“What do you do for work?” Louis asked. He hadn’t talked to this man the whole flight, both of them sleeping most of it away. He was glad to finally have something to do, even if it was only in the last 20 minutes of the flight.

“I’m an investigative journalist; I’m here for work”

“That’s a far way for work.”

“I have one more flight actually, from here to Las Vegas.”

Louis shook his head. “I’ll be there eventually, maybe we’ll meet up at some point,” he joked.

“Hell yeah! Let’s meet up for a pint sometime. Here, I’ll give you my number,” Niall said, ripping Louis’ phone from his lap. Louis watched incredulously as Niall flipped the screen towards him to unlock the phone, then entered his number like it was a normal thing a stranger would do.

“You really shouldn’t have your face ID on mate. It’s just there for the government to have everyone’s face on file.”

“It’s also there so nobody can just randomly take my phone,” Louis mumbled when Niall handed it back to him.

The plane landed without either of them even realizing, everyone standing up to grab their bags and slowly file off.

Niall grabbed a backpack and handed Louis his own carry on, walking down the aisle of the plane.

“I’ll see you around! Don’t forget to text me!” he yelled, probably off to his other flight at the fast pace he was taking. Louis gave him a salute then shook his head, trying to find his own way through the massively big airport.

👽

Louis was laying on the beach, the hot sand warming his back and the cold water tickling his toes. He had a rolled up towel behind his head, sunnies over his eyes, and had been laying there for hours, letting the sun tan his pale English skin to something more LA.

It was just getting to be the perfect shade he wanted when something-

No, _someone_ washed up on top of him. He sputtered, trying to kick the person off him, until he opened his eyes and froze. On top of him was the most beautiful man he had ever seen. Short curly hair, green eyes, and _pink skin?_

“Fuck, how high am I?” Louis muttered. The pot he got was supposed to be medical; he’d gotten it from one of the shops, claiming he had headaches. He thought it would be safe enough.

“Not high at all. On the ground actually,” the boy responded, confused. He looked around, spotting a pasty white man on the beach. Then, his eyes widened and his skin turned from pink to a pale white, matching the man only a few feet away. Fuck, Louis needed to be more careful about who he bought weed from.

“I need to see the president!” the man suddenly demanded, focus back on Louis. Louis could feel his breath on his ear. The man shifted around, pressing his hands on Louis' chest to push himself so he was now sitting on Louis’ hips. Louis swore the man would make him hard if he kept doing that. He was only human after all, and the man was, well- still not getting off of him. Suddenly, pulling Louis from his thoughts, he yelled it again, this time louder so everyone around them could hear.

“Fuck, fine, okay,” Louis grumbled, looking around, expecting all the patrons around them to be giving him funny looks. But, nothing. It was Venice, after all, known for its... unusual crowd. He started reaching around for his phone. He knew he’d tossed it on the sand beside him somewhere and -“Ahha!” he yelled, grabbing it.

The man sat up straighter on Louis’ hips, looking curiously at the device in his hands. He knew it was a phone, but he didn’t think everyone just had access to the President of the United States. He was proven wrong when the President was pushed in his face. He gasped, not expecting it that quickly. He didn’t even have time to prepare! His hair was still wet and his shirt lost to the ocean ages ago.

“Jar Kir OIL ne to Jinx wer rer kr je,” he yelled at the phone, starting the speech he had prepared. He pointed his fingers accusingly at the screen, hoping the phone camera picked it up. He couldn’t believe how still the President could be when he was being yelled at! The man was starting to get heated, breath coming out ragged, when Louis took the phone from him.

“Hey! I was talking to him!” Harry yelled, trying to get the phone back.

“Mate, I think you took the same shit I did. Calm down,” Louis said, grabbing a hold of the man’s hands and gently pulling them away from the phone.

It confused the man. He hadn’t had any shit; human shit wasn’t edible. Human 202. What he didn’t realize was that he had been verbalizing all his thoughts to Louis, concerning him greatly.

“Come on, let’s go ride this out somewhere not about to be submerged in water,” Louis suggested. In all the chaos they both hadn’t realized that the tide was rising, the waves now hitting high on Louis’ thighs, about to hit the man on top of him. The man seemed to notice a second too late, a big wave coming up and hitting his back and soaking Louis’ swim suit. He shrieked, jumping off Louis and running up the beach to a drier point, sand sticking to his feet and legs as he did.

“Not today, demon water! I’m done with you!” he yelled, then started mumbling something unintelligible again. It worried Louis, wondering now if he should just call someone for help or walk away from the crazy man. Said man quickly ran up when the waves rolled back, grabbing all of Louis’ belongings and stuffing them into his beach bag. He grabbed Louis’ hand, somehow pulling them away from the water just in time to miss the next wave

“I just saved you,” he said, bent over with his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. The boy didn’t seem to have any belongings of his own to save, not even a shirt, but Louis was too high to even notice or care. He just knew he had a beautiful boy in front of him, high as a kite, who thought he just saved his life from the horrors of cold ocean water.

“What’s your name?” Louis asked, reaching down to pick up his now fully packed beach bag. He stuffed his hand inside, trying to find his keys, figuring they could ride this out together in his van, then figure everything else out from there. He grabbed his hand and started pulling him up the beach towards the parking lot, going a little fast since the sand was getting hot on his bare feet.

“Harry. Where are you taking me, human?” Harry asked, tripping now for a third time. It was his first time walking on this grainy substance, and without the fear of water, plus the speed this human was taking him, it was impossible not to stumble around behind him. He was still vocalizing all of this, earning him an odd look from Louis

“Louis. My name is Louis,” he said. He could feel the joint he smoked really starting to kick in as he walked, not even noticing the fact that he was practically dragging Harry behind him. He was more so paying attention to the fact that the man with the cute curly hair was actually named Harry. Harry, _Harry,_ Harry. Finally making it to the parking lot after the long walk from the beach, he threw the door to his van open and watched the man’s, _Harry’s,_ eyes widen in shock.

“Your ship isn’t broken! And it has wheels! Take me to the president!” Harry yelled. Within seconds he was sliding into the back passenger seat and buckling himself in. Louis slid in beside him, leaving the door open to keep it cool inside of the van without wasting gas.

“I can’t. That’s like, halfway across the country. Well, I could but it would take awhile,” he laughed. “You’d have to spend the whole summer with me,” he added, laughing harder.

“Then get him back on your phone! I wasn’t finished with him!” Harry grumbled, gripping Louis’ shirt lightly. It only caused Louis to laugh harder. He only stopped when Harry reached right into his pants pocket reaching around for the phone. This was the one time he hated big pockets on men's shorts.

“That was a picture! Shit, we gotta sleep this off,” Louis sighed. He reached around the back and pulled the hook, letting the back of the seat slide down, making it a bed. He laid down, pulling Harry down with him. “Just sleep, okay? We can make sense of your issues with the President when we wake up.” He tucked an arm around Harry to keep him safe. Normally he wouldn’t be so handsy with someone this early, but they did meet when Harry literally fell on top of him.

When he woke up a few hours later, Harry was practically laying on top of him again. He had been in worse situations, and Harry was much better looking than any of those. He tried to get up but Harry seemed to just hold tighter. He sighed, rubbing Harry’s back slightly. “Hey... wake up. How are you feeling?” he asked.

Harry grumbled but opened his eyes, squinting slightly from the bright sun that had yet to set. Then he looked at Louis and the position they were in. He only let go when he realized that their position seemed to make Louis feel awkward. Humans; they were weird.

“How about some water?” Louis asked, grabbing a bottle he had in his mini fridge under the seat. He held it out and Harry snatched it from his hands and proceeded to dump it out the still open door.

“Demon water!” he yelled, and well, maybe Harry was still a little high. Louis grabbed it from his hands before he could dump the whole thing out. Water was expensive in California, after all.

“No! Good! See?” Louis said, taking a few sips from the bottle. Harry moved closer, eyeing him like what he was doing was literal magic.

“Okay, now you,” Louis said, holding the bottle out to Harry who still refused to drink it. Louis rolled his eyes and reached back into the cooler to see what else he had. He pulled out the orange juice that was supposed to be for his breakfast and shrugged, handing it to Harry.

Harry eyed the bottle mysteriously. He shook it, watching the bubbles form at the top before he took a sniff. Finally, he hesitantly took a sip and smiled, looking back at Louis. “This is amazing!”

“I’m sure,” Louis said, feeling Harry's forehead. All seemed normal but he still wasn’t really making sense. “Where are your things, Harry? You only grabbed my stuff when we left.”

“Washed away in the ocean,” Harry said casually between giant gulps of orange juice.

“Okay, and you need to see the president? Why?” Louis asked. He was truly starting to worry; either Harry had smoked something really bad or he was just... strange. Louis didn’t know what he preferred. Since they were both now sitting up, he reached around and pulled the seat up so they could sit properly. He reached over Harry, who was still gulping down the juice, and pulled the table up so they had something to set their drinks on. Nifty, for such a small space.

Harry finished his drink and promptly slammed it on the now set up table. He took a deep breath and started saying, “Jar Kir OIL-” but Louis stopped him before he could go into full rage again.

“Yeah that,” Louis sighed, pressing his fingers to his forehead then down to pinch the bridge of his nose. He was positive something wasn't right with Harry, but there was just something about him. Louis couldn’t think of losing him before he learned the mystery of Harry. That, and he had been on this trip less than 24 hours and he was already starting to get lonely. He didn’t know what a whole summer would do to him.

“Well, I don’t have much but this van, but you're free to come along for the ride if you want. Until you can find a better way to Washington. I should be there in two months or so,” he said, feigning confidence.

“Two months,” Harry said, thinking to himself. Two human months didn’t sound so long. And if Louis has introduced him to the magic of _orange juice_ then what other human things would he show him? “Perfect! I will ride with you for two human months then speak to the president.” He nodded to himself. 

“Okay, but I’m heading up to Malibu tonight. I think you should sleep off... whatever this is,” he said, gesturing to Harry, who had picked up the bottle again, trying to get every last drop of juice out of it by banging it against his face. Louis shouldn’t be as endeared by it as he was. He took the moment to finally take all of Harry in again, stopping quickly when he noticed nothing but pale white skin and bright yellow swim trunks.

“And you should probably buy a shirt. Did your wallet wash away as well?” he asked, trying to keep his eyes above the chest. 

“What? You mean this thing?” Harry asked, pulling a bright pink floral wallet out of his pocket. It had been loaded with thousands of American dollars and credit cards with unlimited limits for him before he left, for situations just like this.

Louis gaped at the wallet, his mouth hanging open at the hundred dollar bills sticking out, so many of them that the wallet would barely close.

“Can you help me buy a shirt?” Harry asked Louis, who shrugged, still completely in shock and unable to pull his eyes off the wallet.

Harry shoved it back inside his pocket, pulling Louis out of his stupor. Louis hopped out of the van, Harry jumping out behind him, feet bare and still sandy even though they had been in the van for the better part of two hours.

“You’re going to need more than just a shirt, but I think they’ve got a few places up here that don’t sell pot,” Louis said, wrapping an arm around Harry’s shoulders as they walked towards the boardwalk.

“Good because I need clothes, not gardening supplies.” 

*

Half an hour later, Louis was racing down the Pacific Coast Highway, windows down with Harry by his side. Both of them had picked out an array of new clothes off the boardwalk. Harry was now sporting a bright pink crop top that read “which way to the beach” while Louis went for the neon green “Best Buds” tank, perfect for their trek to some fancy Malibu restaurant. They would definitely need to go shopping for something better tomorrow.

Louis put on a cheesy 70’s road trip playlist he found on Spotify that Harry was currently singing along to. Apparently he was a huge fan of Fleetwood Mac, if the way he was screaming it out was anything to go by.

As they flew down the highway, Louis couldn’t help but look around in complete awe. On one side of him, there were mountains that led on as far as the eye could see. On the other side, it was an ocean bluer than his own eyes. Harry had pointed that out to him. He could feel the salty air on his face as they drove around another bend; it was pure bliss.

Pure bliss, until they came to a complete halt, traffic hitting a stand still. Fuck. Harry seemed to notice a moment later as he turned down the music and looked over at Louis.

“What's going on?” he asked with a frown. “Your phone says we’re almost there.”

“Probably an accident or something. We should get going soon. Hopefully.” Louis sighed, placing the car into park. He rubbed his hands over his face as he leaned back in his seat. Harry tensed, leaning out the window to try and get a glance at what was going on.

“Do you think they have their flotation devices? I have extra!”

“Flotation devices, Harry, it’s a road accident why would they need-” Louis started, but was cut off.

From his pocket, Harry pulled what looked like a tiny grey square with a little red rope hanging from it. He made eye contact with Louis, both silent for a moment.

Seconds later, Louis' face was plastered against the windshield, squished as far as it would go. He tried to look at the object that somehow just exploded in his car, but could barely move his head. All he could hear were the faint sounds of _Pina Colada_ coming from the radio and his own heart beating erratically against his chest.

“Oops,” he heard coming from the other side of the front window. He quickly pushed the grey rubber towards the back of the car, the rubber of the thing groaning and squeaking as he did so. Finally, after wrestling the thing away from him, Harry came into view, face pressed against the other side of the window.

“Hi.” Louis smiled, looking towards Harry, eyes curious. He almost got lost in the way Harry’s face was so cutely pinched, green eyes glowing in the sunlight. He was brought back to reality when Harry tried to move, causing the grey _whatever it was_ to push against Louis again. “What the fuck is this?”

“Uhh... it’s Randy?”

“Randy? Harry,” Louis sighed. He tried to get in a better position but no luck, each twist and turn just shoving Harry into an even more awkward position. Thankfully still pushed against the front window, he could still see traffic at a standstill, but he didn’t know how long that would last.

Moving quickly, he shoved the _pool floatie?_ out of his way, causing it to groan and squeak again in protest. He could see Harry being shoved out the passenger window from the force of it and could feel the pressure as he pushed, hoping the whole thing wouldn’t just pop and send them all flying.

Thankfully within a few minutes he was able to reach the door handle and flop out of the car, landing straight on his ass on the pavement, a sharp pain shooting up his back as he did so.

“Fuck,” he mumbled, reaching around to rub the area. He froze, realizing what he looked like to the car behind him, but thankfully it was just some girl, too focused on memorizing lines to notice him.

Grabbing the door, Louis pulled himself up, a groan falling from his lips. From out of the car, he could clearly see what was most definitely a pool floatie pressed against the front window and Harry still struggling to break free from its braces.

But, instead of helping, Louis decided to do what any man in his situation would do. He reached in his pocket, pulling his phone out to snap a picture.

“Say Randy!” he yelled, hoping Harry could hear him from where he was struggling. To his delight, Harry smiled at the camera and said what Louis thought was ‘Randy’. It sounded more like “radnysfgs” but it would have to do.

Louis looped around the front of the car, snapping a few more pictures. This was something that would never happen again, at least he hoped, and he wanted to make sure Harry's stupidity was well documented. That was all. He definitely wasn’t doing this just to get more photos of Harry on his phone. Not at all.

When he figured Harry had suffered enough, he opened the passenger door, quickly catching him before he landed on the pavement. Both men froze, Louis stuck half holding Harry up and Harry breathing heavily as he looked up at Louis. He bit his lip, suddenly bursting into a fit of giggles. Louis couldn’t help but laugh along, still holding the boy’s shoulders as they shook from laughter. He helped Harry get onto his feet properly, both still laughing.

“So... Randy?” Louis asked.

“Yup.” Harry smiled, eyes shining with mirth. He bit his lip, taking a step back to take a better look at their situation. You couldn’t even see in the van at this point; _Randy_ was pushed against every window, one of his fins sticking out of the passenger door. It was a shark, if the two eyes in the front window were anything to go by.

“I just... what?” Louis asked, gripping onto Harry’s shoulder as he bent down to laugh again. He gripped his stomach, unable to really stop himself at this point. Harry’s cheeks went bright red as he chewed into his lip harder, trying to stop the giggles.

“I just- I thought they had an accident like mine. And I had one that saved me so I brought it out and then I panicked thinking they would need it right now, like I had needed it right away so I pulled it and suddenly- Randy! Everywhere!” He rambled in what seemed like a slower drawl than usual; Louis had never heard someone talk as slow as Harry. Never heard a story that made so little sense to him, but for some reason he was hooked, nodding along to Harry’s every word.

“Okay. Well, it’s a _road_ accident. No need for a giant pool floatie. I’m sure they're fine. But we won’t be fine if we can't get this thing out of here before cars start moving again,” Louis said. He looked on nervously at the lineup of cars behind them, hoping for the sake of his sanity that the accident took longer to clean up. He couldn’t imagine all these people honking and yelling at him over some stupid pool floatie, but he also couldn’t imagine popping Randy. He’d only known Harry for a few short hours but he knew it would crush him.

“Don’t worry, I've got it,” Harry said easily. He brushed passed Louis and threw both side doors open. Louis was thankful it was a double door in the back; it would give them more room to try and yank _Randy_ out of the car without killing him.

Harry started tugging on the thing, grey rubber twisting and groaning more than it had with them in the car. Louis, at this point, knew it would pop. There was no way Harry would be able to pull Randy out without popping him in some way. He closed his eyes and covered his ears, expecting the loudest bang of his life. Instead, he was knocked over by this stupid shark. Harry had somehow pulled the thing out, but the sheer force of it sent both of them flying to the ground.

Louis could hear Harry panting beside him, trying to catch his breath from however much strength it took to pull Randy from the impossible position he had been stuck in. He looked over at Louis with a smile on his face. Louis was sure he fell in love right there, in the middle of the freeway with a giant rubber shark on top of him.

Louis had some rope in an emergency kit that came with the van. He and Harry managed to tie Randy to the roof with some knots he had never seen before. He figured Harry had been in boy scouts or something, but didn’t have time to ask as cars started moving in front of them. They both quickly hopped in the van, not wanting to cause even more of a delay.

“ _If you like Pina Coladas,_ ” Harry sang with the stereo once they were on the road again. Wasn't that on before? Apparently Louis voiced this out loud because Harry nodded between singing along to the lyrics.

Louis rolled his eyes about to change the song, but Harry grabbed his hand just as he touched the knob.

“No,” he said simply. Louis looked over at Harry, his face contorted cutely for a few seconds before he stopped and kept singing along, not letting go of Louis’ hand. Louis shrugged it off; Harry had a lot of quirks. _Obviously_ , this was just another to add to the list.

He didn’t let go of Louis’ hand, or change the song until they pulled up to a restaurant. Cafe Habana. Louis had heard it was good, and Harry was just along for the ride.

“Shit there’s nowhere to park,” Louis sighed. He pulled into the parking lot, abnormally small as it was, making it even tighter to drive in the van. Harry was no help at all, still humming _Pina_ _Colada_ under his breath. Stupid.

Louis attempted to back out of the lot, knuckles white as he gripped the wheel. He wouldn’t say it out loud to Harry, but this was the first time he had driven in America, and he wasn't used to the wheel on the opposite side. It hadn’t been a problem on the freeway as he just had to follow the line of traffic, but this was trickier. He wasn’t sure on his size or where he needed to look to go in what direction. He was a mess.

When he stopped for the third time, still confused and frazzled by the tiny T-shaped lot, Harry got out of the car. He didn’t even notice, too focused on looking behind him as a family walked across the lot. When he looked forward, Harry was in the middle of dragging the ‘No Parking Any Time’ sign out of the only available spot. He noticed Louis watching him and winked before he tossed the sign into a nearby bush. Louis could still faintly see the orange pole that held the sign between the leaves but shrugged, pulling forward into the spot.

He rolled down the window, leaning out looking at Harry. “The fuck are you doing?”

“Getting you a spot,” Harry said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Now come on, I’m hungry, and I want more of that orange juice. So good” He walked through the small entrance, and disappeared into the bushes.

Louis got out of the car slowly. It wasn’t like it wasn’t noticeable; you didn't see a vintage VW on the road all the time, nevermind one with a _giant fucking shark_ attached to the roof. Randy’s two eyes seemed to be staring at him from where they poked out at the front of the floaty.

He was startled out of what could only be described as a staring contest with a pool float by Harry popping back out of the bush entrance.

“Come on Lou! I got us a table already!” he said, dimples coming out as he smiled at Louis. Louis couldn't say no to dimples, or to Harry, so he followed him into the restaurant, sitting outside on a lovely patio.

One of the walls was lined with lush greenery, more plants that seemed to match the bushes around his car, while the other side was lined with a wall of cacti.

They sat on the side with the cacti. Louis pulled out his phone immediately to take a photo for instagram, earning him a scoff from one of the businessmen beside them. He crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue out at the man. He wouldn’t let someone with a stick up their ass ruin his fun, or his possibility of becoming an instagram model. 

He took a few pictures of just the wall and himself with the wall because you can’t be a model without showing yourself off. When he finished, he saw Harry eyeing one of the cacti right beside him. Louis couldn’t help but snap a picture of that too; Harry was looking at the plant like he was seeing it for the first time. He seemed to do that with a lot of things. Louis already loved that about him. If only he could look at the world with that much wonder.

He snapped a few more sneaky pics as Harry started to inspect another cactus; this one had a tiny pink flower poking out the top. Sadly for Louis, he was so distracted taking pictures of the boy that he didn’t notice Harry slowly reaching, then touching the catus, crying out as it poked his finger.

Louis gasped, reaching forward and spilling his water in the process to try and help Harry. He grabbed the hand that Harry was flailing around and quickly inspected his finger. He was so thankful for having little sisters at this point. He had fixed them up many times before and this was no different. He found the little spine that was sticking out of Harry's finger and gently pulled it out.

Harry pulled his finger back, inspecting where the tiny spine had been. Thankfully, he somehow wasn’t bleeding, but Louis could tell by the pinched look on his face that he was still in pain.

He seemed to be brought out of his trance of _Harry, Harry's finger, Harry in pain, Harry_ when his ice water that spilled on the table was now sliding off the table and into his lap, soaking his shorts and down his leg. He hissed at the cold and tried to ignore the dirty looks from the businessmen around him.

He suddenly felt a napkin being dabbed on his lap, causing him to jump up in surprise, a few pieces of ice falling from his lap to the ground. It wasn’t everyday that you got felt up via napkin, and it wasn’t something he was expecting, but he should have, knowing Harry.

Louis’ cheeks went pink, grabbing Harry's hand to stop him before they had a real problem. He was thankful the water was icy cold at that moment.

More than just a few people were looking at them now, some curious but mostly judgemental. Louis should have thought about this before coming to a nicer restaurant. A waiter seemed to notice their distress and helped them clean up the table, while another brought them fresh waters.

Louis noticed out of the corner of his eye Harry glaring at their new waters; he had almost forgotten Harry's apparent disdain for it. Almost. He asked the waiter to bring them whatever fruit juice they had, trying to avoid any more disaster this dinner could bring. He took Harry’s water, gulping it down as quick as possible, a frown hitting his face as he got brain freeze.

“Demon water strikes again,” Harry tsked, shaking his head as he watched Louis. Louis rolled his eyes at him and sighed. With everything finally cleaned up and most of the restaurant's eyes back to their own tables, Louis tried to relax.

And he did, until two seconds later, when he saw the hostess of the restaurant leading one of the waiters out to look at their van, still obviously illegally parked even though Harry hid the sign. Fuck.

“Harry, I need you to trust me okay? Do you trust me?” he whispered, trying not to bring any more attention to themselves.

“Yeah, I do,” Harry replied easily.

“Then close your eyes, and whatever you do, don’t open them. Make as big of a scene as you can.”

“What?” Harry asked, confusion crossing his face, but he closed his eyes anyway, tightening them perfectly for when Louis reached over him and took the hot sauce from the businessman's table and tossed it into his eyes.

Business Man looked like he was about to complain, but Louis beat him to it, standing up and yelling in all his glory, “What the fuck was that for! Oh, Harry!”

Harry seemed to catch on quickly, reaching to cover his still closed eyes as he screamed out in fake pain. “I can’t see! I’m blind!” he yelled out as he stood up and stumbled around, bumping into a few tables for effect.

“He only bumped your chair, mate! No need to throw hot sauce in his eyes! Bastard!” Louis yelled, thankful for the theatre class he took in college. Wait staff started rushing in, the hostess and the waiter around his car included. In all of the comotion, Louis ran to their van, backing out as fast as he could, any walking families be damned.

Somehow he managed to find a spot, a legal one this time, and snuck back in as though he had never left. Harry had a cold cloth on his face as the wait staff and businessman all argued on what had happened.

Louis tucked his arm around Harry and used the most suburban white mom attitude he could manage, “I can not _believe_ the treatment we are receiving! You have lost our business! We will _never_ return!” he yelled so the whole restaurant could hear. He escorted Harry out, keeping his arm tight around him so the boy wouldn’t bump into anything else.

Harry was laughing by the time they got to the van, unable to control himself. They were luckily parked far enough away that nobody would hear them, but Louis could still hear the ruckus they left at the restaurant between Harry’s outbursts.

He allowed himself to laugh along with Harry once they were back on the freeway, once he had fully taken in the situation. He almost had to pull over when _Pina_ _Colada_ came on again, laughing so hard he had tears running down his cheeks.

*

Later that night, they were parked by some secluded beach, munching on McDonalds nuggets and fries. The skin around Harry’s eyes was all red and blotchy but thankfully his eyes were fine.

Rain pelted against the van, because apparently Louis brought the rain from England to the sunniest place in the world. It wouldn’t stop him from enjoying it, though. Watching the rain fall and the clouds coming up on the ocean was almost mesmerizing. He couldn’t believe everything that had happened to him. It was the craziest day of his whole life. He finally felt he was getting the excitement and adventure he was looking for and it had only been day one of his road trip. Day one of Harry.

Harry, who apparently didn’t take silence too well, because seconds later he was leaning over and turning the stereo on full volume, singing along at the top of his lungs. 

_‘Yes, I like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.”_

Yeah, this was definitely going to be the adventure of a lifetime.

*****

Louis brushed his hand across his forehead, wiping away the fresh layer of sweat. They had been walking down the Hollywood Walk of Fame for the past hour and his skin felt like it was going to burn off if he was in the sun for much longer. The rain from last night had left quickly, bringing on a fresh wave of heat, and without the ocean breeze cooling him off, it was hell.

The Walk of Fame was insane. Louis had never seen so many people in his life. He couldn’t even count the number of people who had bumped into him anymore, having lost count in the first twenty minutes. He had bumped into a few people himself though, so he couldn’t really blame them. It was hard when people would randomly stop to take a photo with a star. If you weren’t paying attention you would just walk into them. Or over them one time. Oops.

“Why are there stars all over the ground?” Harry asked, pulling Louis from his thoughts. He laughed, thinking Harry was joking, but when he looked over at him, he was blinking down at their current star, looking completely confused.

“Harry, this is the Walk of Fame. We’re here to see the stars! What did you think we've been doing here for the last hour?” Louis asked, looking at him completely dumbfounded.

“I thought we were trying to avoid those guys,” Harry said, pointing towards some of the characters. Currently, a transformer was telling some kids to fuck off, and a coked out looking Elmo was chasing parents for money. Louis had been told many times that Hollywood was weird, but he never thought it would be like this. He couldn't believe the parents letting their kids take pictures with strangers just because they were in costume. He wouldn’t let his sisters anywhere near them.

“No, we’re here to see the Walk of Fame! The Hollywood sign! Other things you’re expected to do in Hollywood that I haven’t thought of yet! We’re standing on The Beatles right now!” Louis said, pointing down to the star. Harry jumped off it quickly.

“The Beatles are in there?” he asked, horrified. One of the many people around them scoffed at Harry, pushing him out of the way to get their picture with the star. 

“No! No, it’s just their star, just to show they were famous,” Louis explained, pulling Harry closer to himself. He wanted to yell at the strangers for shoving Harry but within seconds they had disappeared into the crowd.

Harry sighed in relief, finally seeming to understand as he looked down at the star etched in concrete. “They’re not as pretty as real stars, but they’ll do,” he said. He stole Louis’ phone and took a selfie with the star, copying the person at the next star. “So who are The Beatles anyway? I thought humans didn’t like bugs.”

Louis gaped, mouth falling open. “You know Fleetwood Mac but not The Beatles?”he asked. “Damn, I know what we’re listening to when we drive tomorrow.”

“What?” Harry asked then froze. “Wait, is there a Fleetwood Mac star?”

“I’m pretty sure,” Louis said, reaching into his pocket. He picked up a brochure in the airport and was glad he remembered to grab it this morning. He checked his front two pockets, shifting through all the shit he had to carry around. Keys, wallet, receipt from McDonald’s, _another_ receipt from McDonald’s. He was sometimes jealous of people who carried purses. Harry would look good with a purse, now that he thought of it, but Harry would look good in anything.

Harry was still standing in front of him, bouncing excitedly on his heels as Louis shifted through his too tight jean shorts.

“Ahha!” he yelled in triumph when he found the brochure in his back pocket. It was completely crickled up - he was pretty sure Harry sat on it when they were driving up to Malibu yesterday- but it was readable and that was all that mattered. He read down the list, quickly finding them.

“They do have a star! I’m surprised we haven’t seen it yet.” Louis frowned, squinting down at the map. He was pretty sure they had seen almost all the stars, only a block to go before they finished. At least he had hoped it was only a block. His feet were killing him and the sun was still beating down on both of them.

The map was ripped from his hands when Harry went from bouncing on his heels to actually jumping around in excitement. It ended in a few weird glances their way, almost giving coke Elmo a run for his money. Almost.

Suddenly, Louis felt a hand grip his wrist and tug. He tripped on his feet, thankfully not enough to fall, but enough that the breath was knocked out of him, as Harry tugged him towards what he presumed to be the Fleetwood Mac Star, but he couldn’t really tell where he was going as he was dragged through the thickening crowd of people.

Finally, Harry stopped, causing Louis to bump into his back as he did. He took a moment to catch his breath and watched Harry pose in front of the star, taking as many pictures as he could, only stopping him when he leaned down and kissed it. It was gross, especially when he stood up and had tiny black dirt all over his lips. Not that Louis was looking at his lips. Shit.

“Let’s take one together!” Harry cheered, positioning Louis to take a selfie with him. Again, he took like fifty of the same picture, almost as if he’d never used an iphone before. Louis would have to delete all them later. He knew he wouldn’t, but he should.

Once they finished up at the Fleetwood Mac Star, Harry claimed, “it’s more beautiful than all the stars in the galaxy” as they left, and they decided to finish up with the stars they hadn’t seen.

Unfortunately, it meant the rest of their walk slowed to a halt, as Harry wanted to read every star instead of following Louis around mindlessly like he had before.He asked Louis if he knew them and if he didn’t, Harry demanded he look them up on his phone so they both could know who the person was. The last few that should have taken 10 minutes took them over half an hour. Louis did learn about a bunch of older celebrities though, so there was that.

When they finally finished, they ended up right in the middle of the Walk of Fame with impersonators and tourists everywhere. It did have a really good view of the Hollywood sign though. Louis stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to get a good look and take a good picture.

“Harry look- Harry?” He frowned when he realized Harry wasn’t right beside him and spun around trying to find him in the crowd of people that only seemed to get thicker by the second.

He noticed him a minute later, standing in front of coke Elmo, who had his hand out demanding money. Fuck.

Louis ran up to him, pushing past all the tourists, and stepped between Elmo and Harry.

“What’s the issue here?” he asked as calmly as he could. Coke Elmo was even more horrifying in person, his costume obviously very outdated with raggedy and faded fur. The two giant eyes on his head seemed to be baring into Louis’ soul.

“Your friend here took a photo without paying! Elmo no likey friends that don’t pay,” Coke Elmo said, in a high pitched Elmo-like voice.

“My friend doesn’t even own a camera!” Louis said, crossing his arms and trying to look as big as he could. In costume, this man towered over him, and Louis couldn’t tell how big he was under the suit.

“I don’t care. He posed so someone need to _fucking pay Elmo,_ ” he said, still fully in his Elmo voice. Louis hadn’t noticed before, but Olaf, a minion, and Spiderman seemed to be walking up behind Elmo to back him up.

Louis took a step back, and Elmo took a step forward, holding his hand out. The thing was, Louis didn’t have any money on him. He had been putting everything on card so far, figuring he would get cash somewhere along the way. If he did, he would have paid Elmo already andgotten them away from the crazy asshole.

Elmo took another step forward, punching his big red fist into his other hand. Spidey, Minion, and Olaf copied his motions. Louis would laugh at this, if he hadn’t seen these guys go off on people earlier.

“Hand over the money, kid, and we won’t have a problem,” Elmo said, this time in a deep voice that seemed to vibrate through Louis’ whole body. Was he really going to fight Elmo? Well, more like get his ass kicked by Elmo, it seemed. He looked around, spotting kids running around them to the other characters. What would they think when their favourite character kicked the shit out of someone on the street?

Thankfully, Louis heard his name being called from above by. Harry? Harry, who was now on the second level of a tourist bus right behind Elmo. Louis quickly ducked under Elmo’s arm, missing his first fluffy punch. He hopped on the bus, taking his ticket from Harry as he sat down beside him, trying to catch his breath and get his heartbeat back under control. He was never more thankful for Harry’s apparent wandering than in that moment.

He wasn’t safe yet though, as Elmo and Minion banged against the back of the bus as it started to drive off. “This bus comes back, motherfucker! And I’ll be waiting!” he yelled up towards Louis.

The man holding the tour laughed into his microphone, “Don’t we all just love the crazy characters of Hollywood?”

Louis was sweating.

*

The tour ended up being one of those celebrity house tours, the ones offered along Hollywood Boulevard by overly pushy sales people screaming into microphones at gullible tourists who wanted to see how the other half lives. Louis could easily see how Harry was lured into the trap, but his excitement was cute. They had been driving around for at least an hour now and had barely seen 3 houses, most of them covered with tall fences or big trees. Harry still seemed to have hope they would bump into the actual _Stevie Nicks_ ; the lie of the salesman, apparently.

His excitement seemed to dwindle with every house they went to, and as they drove down the winding roads of the Hollywood Hills and towards Calabasas to see Kim Kardashian's home, he lost it.

“I want Stevie Nicks!” Harry yelled, and, to make his point, he stood up in his seat, much to the bus driver’s dismay. They had been given clear instructions to only stand when the bus was fully stopped.

“Sir? Sir! Please sit down!” the tour guide said, walking up towards Harry. Harry looked around at the other passengers, trying to find some backup, as Louis wrapped a hand around his wrist, tugging for him to sit down again. Harry seemed to have other plans as he ripped his hand away from Louis’ and moved so he was standing almost nose to nose with the tour guide.

The guide kept his stance, hardening his stare and not giving Harry a semblance of the upper hand. Louis could tell he had dealt with this before, probably many times considering Hollywood was the pick up point, but that's what you get when you scam people.

Harry took a deep breath, seeming to work himself up. Then, in the fastest voice Louis had ever heard from him, he started to chant, “Stevie Nicks! Fleetwood Mac! Stevie Nicks! Fleetwood Mac!” raising his arm up to pump his fist as he did so. He looked around, trying to rile up the rest of the crowd with him, but most seemed to just avoid him in favour of talking to their partners or looking out the window.

One passenger, seemingly the most bold of them all, turned to Harry. “Who is stevie Nicks? I want Kim Kardashian!”

Turning towards the man, giving the guide a little bit of breathing room finally, Harry fish mouthed. “You don’t…” He paused trying to find his words. His brain seemed to be re-wiring, from what Louis could see, like he couldn't believe someone didn’t know Fleetwood Mac.“Who is Kim Kardashian!” he countered. Louis wondered if he was lying or if he actually didn’t know who Kim Kardashian was. Harry seemed to not know a lot of things, but Kim Kardashian? Come on.

“Bullshit you don’t know Kim!” the man scoffed. A few people in the bus laughed along with him, which only seemed to cause Harry more distress.

Harry turned back to the guide and lifted his hand to point a finger right to the guy's chest. “I was promised Stevie Nicks! You’re breaking your promise! And that’s not right!” he said, brows pinching as he dug his finger deeper.

“Well, we actually said there was only a possibility of seeing your fave celeb; it’s in the manual, right here,” he said with practised ease. He held out the manual to Harry, pointing to the tiny fine print of the tour brochure with a cocky smile. It only seemed to make Harry angrier.

Normally in these types of situations, Louis would just sit back and watch, staying out of the way unless he was needed. He had seen plenty of bar fights involving his friends back home, but had never started one, or even came in for back up. Something about Harry though made Louis throw everything to the wind.

So he stood up, strutting right up to cocky smiled asshole. “You promised my boy Stevie Nicks! And if that’s not what he’s going to get I want our money back!” he yelled, placing a hand on Harry’s back and rubbing it soothingly. The last thing he wanted was to get Harry more riled up than he already was.

“Both of you! Sit down or you’re kicked off the tour! I could file charges for harassment!”

“I could file for fraud!” Louis yelled back, not moving towards his seat. Harry didn’t either, and their decision was made.

“You’re a liar! And a horrible human being!” Harry yelled. Louis could see security coming up to the second level of the bus, obviously for them. He patted Harry’s back twice then pushed him towards the stairs, glaring at the Tour Guide as they walked passed him.

The bus had stopped in front of a Target, thankfully not in front of the many rich houses they had viewed before. It would have looked a little weird on their part, and the last thing Louis wanted was the cops called on them for trespassing private property, or worse, stalking.

The bus dumped them off quickly, pulling away before Louis could make sure he had all his things. He quickly threw them the finger though. Just as a last fuck you.

Harry stood on the side of the road looking at his hands. Louis walked up beside him and put an arm around him. “Harry? What's the matter?” he asked.

“I’m just really sorry you had to see me that way,” Harry confessed. He still wouldn’t look up at Louis, only focusing on twisting a ring around his finger. He rocked his feet on the sidewalk, the shitty flip flops he had bought in Venice still on his feet.

Louis grabbed his chin and gently moved his head so their eyes met. He hadn’t realized how close they were standing, taking his breath out of his lungs for a moment. He couldn’t believe he had met this beautiful, kind, and a little bit strange man only twenty four hours ago.

“What are you talking about?” Louis whispered, in a moment that felt too quiet for the loud streets of LA. “That guy was a total prick! And all you did was call him out on his lies! Totally understandable.”

“Is it really though?” Harry frowned. He rubbed his hands over his face, groaning into them. “I just... I really need to see the president. I didn’t know it was this bad.” He sighed, finally looking at Louis again. Louis hadn’t realized how green his eyes were, but the bright sun really pulled the colour out.

“I know, I um.” Louis frowned. He had kind of forgotten that was why Harry was with him. It felt like ice falling over his body. Harry was really just using him as a ride. “I bet you could find someone going directly there, so you wouldn’t have to wait so long riding with me.”

“No,” Harry said easily, shaking his head along with the reply. He reached down, taking Louis’ hand in his and squeezing, just slightly, a shy smile playing at his lips. “You’re the kindest human I've ever met. I want to do this with you.”

Louis matched his smile and squeezed his hand back. It definitely wasn’t butterflies in his stomach; he was just happy Harry was along for the ride. “Good,” he said easily. “But I do think we should leave LA, though. It just seems to be trouble for us.”

“A little yeah. Shall we find your ship?” Harry asked, wiggling his brows.

Louis rolled his eyes. “Yeah, Styles, let's go find my _ship.”_

_“_ That's what I said!”

*

The plan had been to wait in Target for just a few minutes while waiting for their Uber. Maybe pick up a few things for their drive the next morning. After the air conditioned bus, the afternoon sun felt like it was melting Louis’ skin off. But of course, as with everything involving Harry, things didn’t go to plan.

It had been harmless. On the way to grab more juice, Louis ran for a moment with the cart, jumping to ride it down an abandoned aisle. Harry, in all his life, had never seen cart riding before. Apparently. He proceeded to grab the cart from Louis, copying his motions and flying down another aisle, only stopping when they reached the juice aisle. The juice aisle was something else Harry had also never seen, apparently. Louis figured he had grown up in one of those small towns, something with a tiny corner store and not a Super Target.

So, an hour and four cancelled Ubers later, Louis was pushing Harry around in the cart filled with what felt like half the store. Louis wasn’t sure it would all fit in his Volkswagen at this point. Especially since Harry didn’t seem to be finished.

“I want one of those things.” Harry frowned, face pinching in confusion. “I don’t know what they’re called... the clicky things,” he said motioning his hands to look like he was taking a photo.

“You mean a camera?” Louis asked, a smile creeping on his face. He almost found it cute how little Harry seemed to know about big city things. Well, normal things at this point.

“Yeah! Like that little square thing you use,” Harry said, leaning back in the cart, twisting around when he couldn’t get comfortable.

“Wait, you mean this?” Louis asked, holding his phone out to Harry.

A smile formed on Harry’s face. “Yeah that,” he said.

“That’s a phone,” Louis laughed, starting to push the cart towards the electronics section. They had just finished in clothes, practically buying Harry a whole new wardrobe so he would have more than the neon Venice Beach shirts from yesterday. Harry hopped out of the cart once they rounded the corner, the phones now in view.

As Louis was quickly learning, Harry was really good with his words. Although he may not know what certain things were, he was still able to charm the pants off anyone he talked to. Right now that happened to be the eletronics woman, who seemed to be letting Harry freely drag her around.

Louis wouldn’t say he was jealous. He wouldn’t say it, but he was. The woman seemed to be interested in whatever Harry told her, however wild it was. She batted her lashes and kept biting her lip seductively while nodding along to him.

When she grabbed his hand, showing him how to use the phone like something out of Dirty Dancing, Louis stepped in.

“So you got your phone, Harry? We should go,” Louis said, pretending to check the time on his phone. “Gotta get on the road. You know how road trips are. Keep moving. Never come back,” he said, emphasizing the last part for the girl. She seemed startled, too distracted with Harry that she hadn’t realised Louis was there. Or anyone else according to the angry looking lineup of people standing behind them.

Harry smiled at her. “Well, I’m so glad I got to meet you. Thank you for your help,” he said, grabbing her hand to shake it gently.

“Well, would you like my number? For your new phone,” the woman said, one last try at flirting with Harry as she chewed her lip and looked at him shyly.

“Oh, I won’t be needing that; Louis here will show me anything else I need to know,” Harry said easily. Louis choked on his own spit, covering his mouth with his hand as to not let the laugh fall from his lips. The girl looked shell shocked, letting go of Harry’s hand and turning right to the next customer and pretending none of that ever happened.

Louis snickered when Harry walked right back up to him, not at all bothered that he just turned the woman down without flinching. “See my new phone! Just like yours!” he said, holding his phone out for Louis. It was the exact same make and model, only Harry’s was covered in a baby pink case.

“So are you done?” Louis asked.

“Well...” Harry trailed off, biting his lip as he looked at Louis. It reminded him of the woman flirting with Harry only seconds ago. This time though, it made butterflies fly around his stomach, not the slow burn of jealousy.

“Spit it out, Styles,” Louis laughed lightly.

“Well the woman over there said... Cameras?” he asked. “Should I go get her help again?”

“No! Definitely don’t do that,” Louis laughed, looking at the woman who was now harshly checking out a poor old woman, roughly tossing her things into a plastic bag. Louis hoped they weren’t breakable. “I think we’ve bothered her enough. I'll take you to look at cameras,” he said, pushing the cart towards the next aisle.

Harry didn’t question that, just followed Louis blindly. “I want something that takes the best pictures. I want to bring them home so I can remember this forever,” Harry said dreamily. It made Louis’ heart warm at the thought. He could imagine Harry looking over all their pictures years down the line, that beautiful dopey smile on his face as he thought of all the adventures they’d yet to have. He pictured himself alongside him, both of them cuddled up beside a fireplace, kids in bed and tea in hands. Not what Louis should be thinking of now, though. They just met. Harry was still a stranger. A very cute oddball of a stranger.

“Well, DSLR is the nicest, but the most expensive,” Louis said, looking down the aisle at all the different cameras they had. “Um, this one, polaroid, prints the photos right away.”

“I know what a polaroid is, Lou,” Harry said, rolling his eyes, as if it was obvious that _that_ was the one thing he’d know. Harry grabbed one, tossing it into their cart along with a bunch of photo paper for it.

“That should be good then. Let’s roll,” Harry said.

“I thought you wanted the best?” Louis asked following him to the front of the store to pay.

“What’s better than a polaroid? Instax?”

👽

The cheap sheets thrown over the windows weren’t enough to keep the sun out in the morning, Louis quickly realized. So when the sun rose in the morning, so did he.

“What time is it?” he mumbled, stretching as best he could in the tiny pulled-out seat. Harry was already awake, lounging in the front with his feet hanging out the window. Louis could hear noises from his phone, sounds he didn’t think he had ever heard before.

“How far is San Diego from here?” Harry asked, completely ignoring his question while his eyes never left the screen of his phone.Louis just wanted to go back to sleep.

“I think like an hour or something. You’re looking at your phone, tell me the time.”

“Can’t see it,” Harry said, and suddenly Louis had a pair of keys landing on top of his face. “Drive me to the San Diego Zoo.”

“What?”

“Please.”

Louis sat up with a yawn, stretching again as he did so. “I thought we would—” he paused, yawning again as he climbed into the front seat. “I thought we were going to Disneyland today?”

“I don’t care about the rich mouse. I only care about these,” Harry said, pushing the phone in front of Louis’ face. It was blurry, mostly from the sleep still in his eyes, but on the screen in front of him all he could see were...penguins.

“What is that?” Louis asked, though he was starting the car anyway. He reached back to pull all the sheets down so he could see. No matter where they went, he would definitely need a coffee, so he pulled back onto the highway.

“It’s a live cam. Penguin live cam. Been watching it all night,” Harry said. Even with the car jostling them slightly as they drove, Harry kept his eyes locked on the phone screen.

He wasn’t sure what made him do it, but instead of making the turn back towards the city like originally planned, he cranked the gears on the bus and swerved, quite dangerously, across the lanes of the highway and made the turn towards San Diego.

Harry didn’t do anything other than smile at Louis when he saw the “120 miles to San Diego” sign. It only lasted a second before he looked down at the livestream again.

Three coffees and one toilet break later, they pulled into the parking lot of the zoo. The sun was still shining, something Louis was starting to get used, and it was an overall beautiful day.

Harry still hadn’t looked up from his phone, even as they walked to the entrance. Louis had to guide him from bumping into a few people as they walked. It was early enough that there wasn’t much of a line so Louis paid for both of them, and led him in.

He followed the map, guiding them directly to the penguins, knowing that nothing else would keep Harry’s attention until he saw them, especially while Harry was still fervently watching the live stream. Louis could see the little camera recording as they walked up to the exhibit, and positioned Harry right in front of it then slowly lowered his phone from in front of his face.

Harry let out a little squeak, running up to get a closer look. “Lou! This is amazing,” he whispered.

Louis came up beside him with a small smile on his face. “It is, isn’t it?”

The penguins were almost flowing through the water as they swam, with some lounging on the rocks around them, mothers picking bugs off the smaller ones.

“Have you ever seen anything like it?” Harry asked, finally taking his eyes away from them to look at Louis.

“Can’t say I have,” Louis laughed. “We don’t have penguins at the zoos I’ve been to at home.”

“Where is home for you anyway? You never really said,” Harry asked, his focus moving back towards the penguin exhibit.

“England. I’m assuming you can tell from the accent,” he chuckled. “Grew up in Doncaster, though I spent the last four years in Manchester for uni.”

Harry hummed along, still keeping his focus on the penguins. “Do you miss it?” he asked.

“I do,” Louis said. It was the first time since they met that they seemed to have a quiet moment together. Something serious.

“I think I’m going to miss this when we leave,” Harry said. The “we” made Louis’ heart ache.

He knew what he was getting into when he decided to roadtrip across America alone, but he had hoped that he would find someone along the way. He didn’t think it would be his first day, though,and he didn’t think it would be someone like Harry. He tried not to read between the lines that Harry was saying he was going to miss _this_.

Louis had known something was special about Harry from the moment they met on the beach. Harry quite literally fell into his lap, speaking nonsense from the very beginning. In just a matter of a few short days, Louis had grown attached to the little weirdo.

Trying not to think about it too much, Louis managed to pull Harry away from the penguins, with a promise they could stop by one last time before they left for the day.

They wandered aimlessly through the zoo and Harry held tight to Louis’ hand, pulling him to wherever caught his eye. He loved the frogs they saw in the amphibian exhibit in particular, amazed by their wide eyes.

“Lou, they’re so lovely looking,” he said in amazement. “Some of them are so tiny.”

“Have you never seen a frog before?” Louis asked, but he was becoming less and less shocked by the things Harry didn’t know about. Of course, it made sense that he would know about things like Fleetwood Mac but not frogs. Of course.

Harry shook his head. “I like them, though.”

“They kind of remind me of you,” Louis said without thinking. The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. “I mean—”

Harry cut him off with a laugh, throwing his head back and startling the young couple next to them. “Why do you think they look like me? I’m not a frog!”

“No, you’re not a frog. I’m not sure what you are. Sometimes I don’t think you’re human,” Louis joked. Harry laughed lightly, but there was something forced behind it. Louis decided not to read too much into it and grabbed his hand again, pulling him through the building.

Once outside, Louis figured they would continue the way they had all morning, maybe stopping for food soon. Harry, apparently, had other ideas.

“What are they doing up there?” he asked, pointing upwards.

Louis glanced up, squinting against the bright San Diego sun. “Oh, those are like.” He struggled to think of the exact name. “A sky trolley. Those, like, sky trams. Those things on zip lines that give you a tour. I don’t know if they have an official name.”

Harry pulled his eyebrows together and cocked his head to the left.

“You guys have a lot of weird ships here.”

“Right,” Louis said, stretching the word out. Like always, he just went along with Harry’s antics. “Do you want to go up in one?”

“We can go up in them?” Harry’s eyes widened.

Louis gave a little tug on their still joined hands. “Let’s go.”

They struggled to find a place where they were actually meant to get on to the trolley, but finally found where they could purchase tickets and hop on. There were a few places around the park where they could disembark, or they could wait until it came full circle back. Louis was sure they would hop off wherever Harry led them.

It didn’t take much time to get through the line, still early enough in the day that people were content to walk around the zoo, or had decided to take the bus tour. Louis rather preferred this, being up away from the people, where it could be just the two of them. And he could answer whatever strange questions Harry asked.

Plus, the last time they had been on a bus hadn’t ended very well.

As the trolley made its way higher and higher above the zoo, Harry’s eyes widened in amazement. He watched the people below them grow smaller and the animals in their exhibits from an angle he hadn’t experienced before.

“Enjoying this?” he asked, lightly tapping Harry’s side with his elbow.

Harry nodded. “I wish we could hang out with the animals.”

Louis tried to keep his features neutral so Harry wouldn't see how endeared he was by the statement. He was pretty sure he failed.

“We could go to the petting zoo portion,” he suggested. “When we’re done here. It’s not going to be lions and tigers and bears, but it’ll be goats and horses. Or something similar to those animals. I’m not really a petting zoo expert.”

Harry nodded, eyes still wide as they watched the ground move slowly below them. “Oh my.”

“Oh my?” Louis furrowed his eyebrows.

Harry finally looked up at him, smile wide and dimples set deep in his cheeks. He looked almost proud of himself, and Louis couldn’t figure out why.

“Lions and tigers and bears, oh my,” he said, smile growing wider. “Like from that movie.”

Louis couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him. “You’re right. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my. Have you seen _The Wizard of Oz_ then?”

“No, I haven’t.” Harry shook his head. “I’ve just heard the story.”

“Well. We can watch it sometime,” Louis promised.

He didn’t know when they would, and it was probably for the best if he didn’t make promises he didn’t know if he could keep, but it was worth it for the way Harry’s eyes softened and his smile threatened to split his face.

“I would love that.”

They rode the rest of the way in silence until they were back where they started, climbing from the trolley and steadying themselves once they were standing again. Harry automatically grabbed Louis’ hand and started pulling him off somewhere, but Louis planted his heels and stopped them before they could get too far.

“I thought we wanted to go to the petting zoo?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Harry’s face brightened. “Yes, please.”

Louis started tugging him in the opposite direction. “It’s this way.”

Harry followed behind silently, palm slightly sweaty against Louis’, but he found that he didn’t mind so much. If it were anyone else, he’d pull away and wipe his hands on his pants, but instead he found himself holding on tighter and hoping they wouldn’t have to let go any time soon.

The petting zoo wasn’t too crowded when they arrived, a few families lazily making their way through the pen and the attached barn. Harry’s eyes widened, mouth dropping open as he took in the sight of all of the animals. Most of them were just lounging around, letting themselves be petted, but there were a few nosing patrons in search of food.

“Look at the little babies,” Harry cried out happily, pointing to the corner where there were in fact a few baby goats warming themselves in the sun.

“Do you want to pet them?” Louis asked.

“ _Yes_.”

Harry dragged them over, slowing down the closer they got to the goats, careful not to startle them. The goats didn’t flinch when Harry reached a hand to gently stroke along the fur of their backs and sides, lightly scratching with his nails. When he was certain they weren’t going to get up and run away from him, he plopped down into the dirt next to them and continued petting them, face relaxing as he watched them sleep.

Louis couldn’t bring himself to disturb them by directing them to the rest of the animals and continue along their way. The plan hadn’t been to spend the whole day at the zoo, but how could he ever deny Harry something like this?

He wasn’t sure how long he stood there, just watching Harry and the small goats. He was mesmerized, just as he was whenever Harry did anything. Eventually, a young couple and their toddler wandered over and the peace was broken by their happy voices waking the goats. Harry came out of whatever trance he had been in, a gentle smile directed up at Louis.

Louis offered him a hand, pulling him up from the ground. He laughed as Harry twisted to dust the dirt off from the butt of his pants, not really succeeding.

They agreed on grabbing a late lunch next, meandering to one of the numerous food courts located at the park. Louis decided that chicken fingers were always a safe bet, while Harry wandered over to grab a slice of pizza. None of it was the authentic Safari food that the cafeteria claimed to sell, but Louis wasn’t too picky about the particulars.

They met back up at an open table, one of the few that wasn’t occupied by screaming children and tired parents.

“Human babies are so much work,” Harry said, “but I think they are so cute that it’s worth it.”

Louis laughed around a french fry. “They are a lot of work,” he agreed. “But I’ve got six siblings, and I think they’re worth it too.”

“Six?” Harry’s eyes widened. “Tell me about them.”

Louis obliged because he was quickly finding it hard to say no to Harry about anything. They spent too long sitting at the cafeteria table, letting their food go cold between bites, as Louis talked about his family. He could go on for hours about them, but after checking the time, he figured he should cut himself off so they could see a few more things before they had to be on their way for the day.

The sun wasn’t quite setting when they exited the cafeteria and into the warm California air, but it wasn’t high in the sky either Louis hadn’t checked the time since before they sat down to eat, and he was surprised to find that it was almost five in the afternoon. They had been in there for over two hours, but it hadn’t felt like it.

Harry made time feel like it was slowing down and speeding up at the same time. Hours could pass in a blink of an eye and he’d have no idea, but that only meant the days passed even quicker when they were together. Something about that had a knot twisting deep in the pit of Louis’ stomach, but he brushed it away in favor of leading Harry to the giraffes.

“Do you want to feed the giraffes and then get on the road?” he asked, happily accepting the hand offered to him. It didn’t seem like Harry even consciously reached out for him—more like it was a force of habit, or something to comfort him in the crowd. Either way, Louis didn’t mind.

Harry nodded, allowing himself to be led down the paths to the giraffe enclosure. There was a small line underneath a sign that boasted “giraffe feeding here”: but not as many people as Louis expected. He assumed that since it was nearing the end of the day, parents were giving up and taking their grumpy kids home after their hours spent in the sun.

Once five on the dot rolled around, a zookeeper came out to tell them how it worked, voice booming through the megaphone she held. They were allowed one photo per person, and they could just hold the lettuce out to the giraffe. Louis nodded to himself. Seemed simple enough.

Harry looked like a kid on Christmas day, mouth halfway open and eyes opened as wide as they could be. Louis was more excited to see Harry’s reaction to feeding the animals than he was to feed them himself. Sure, giraffes were cute, but were they as cute as Harry?

No.

The line moved steadily until Harry was next, handing his polaroid over to Louis so he could snap the photo. He hadn’t been taking many photos all day, which surprised Louis, but it made sense that he would want to document this moment.

Harry walked up slowly to the animal, holding the lettuce out away from his body. The zookeeper greeted him warmly, face warm and laugh lines by her eyes that comforted Louis. The giraffe didn’t hesitate to start eating the greens, tongue coming out far from its mouth as it took a chunk of the lettuce from Harry’s hand.

Harry let out something that resembled a squawk more than anything else, followed by a small giggle. His laughter raised in volume as the giraffe continued to eat the food, chewing happily.

Louis saw the perfect moment for a photo, Harry’s eyes half-shut in laughter as the animal took the last bite of the lettuce. Harry’s mouth opened wider in surprise, exclaiming something about the giraffe’s tongue, just as Louis snapped the picture. The clicking noise startled Harry enough that he looked over, face still bright.

“Louis, that was so much fun,” he called out, turning around to whisper something to the zookeeper and the giraffe. The animal didn’t seem to care much, already looking towards the next visitor, but the zookeeper beamed as she pointed Harry in the direction of the hand sanitizer.

“I got this photo for you,” Louis said, hanging the polaroid back over. “You looked like you had a good time.”

“Yeah,” Harry said breathlessly. “Earth has so many cute animals.”

Louis wasn’t going to overthink the strange way Harry said anything. He wasn’t going to fall trap to it. Nope.

Instead, he reached for the hand that hadn’t been feeding the giraffe and started to lead them out to the parking lot. Taking in Harry’s pink cheeks and drooping eyes, he said, “On to our next adventure.”

👽

The ride to the Grand Canyon was silent, and Louis wasn’t sure but he thought he could still hear the little noises of the penguin live stream coming out from where Harry was fast asleep behind him.

They had stopped on the way to grab some string and clothespins to hang the few photos Harry took, and Louis could now see them dangling through the rear view mirror.

They would be arriving at the Grand Canyon much sooner than he had planned. He wasn’t able to stop to sleep when Harry was curled up in front of him, trying his very hardest not to make things awkward, and he wasn’t sure how he would survive making it all the way to Washington with Harry pressed up beside him every night.

The roads started getting curvier the closer they got, and when he pulled into the camping area, Louis finally let loose muscles he didn’t know were tense. Harry seemed to feel the van stop because he was climbing up onto the front bench, limbs flying everywhere, within a few minutes of them stopping.

“Well, I guess this is our home for the next- however long,” Louis said.

“Is this it?” Harry asked, looking around.

Louis let out a laugh at that, having promised Harry they were going somewhere with some of the best views in the country, and currently in their campsite all you could see was dirt and trees.

“No, can’t see the views from here; have to hike to see that.”

And so they made their way, this time with proper sun hats and more sunscreen than Louis had ever seen in his life. They hadn’t noticed, but the day before they had both caught a burn, the pink tinting Harry’s nose and cheeks a lesson for both of them. 

Harry took his hand as they walked, something Louis was slowly getting used to. Harry still hadn’t said anything about it, and he was scared to ruin it, whatever it was at this current moment.

They walked, with Harry pulling him along the hiking trail, and Louis directing him with the map they picked up on the way.

It was late afternoon by the time they made it to “ooh ahh point,”the hike harder than Louis was really ready for, if all the huffing and puffing had anything to say about it. He couldn’t believe Harry barely seemed bothered at all.

They stood there silently, both taking a moment to take in the full view they had been waiting for. Louis tried to focus, but his brain only seemed to be able to read that fact that Harry’s hand was still gripping his, even as they stood there. He looked over at him, and Harry was looking back, a small grin taking over his face.

“Ohh ahh,” he said, unable to hold the laugh back from his own joke. It was a loud honk that Louis wasn’t expecting, one that echoed out through the canyon and had Louis on his knees in seconds, laughing harder than he had in awhile. Harry joined him seconds later, already in tears.

“Why did it do that? Couldn’t just embarrass me once; had to do it over and over...”

Louis was quick thinking, grabbing the polaroid camera from where it was dangling on Harry's wrist and snapping a picture, only succeeding in making Harry laugh harder.

“Now we have it! Embarrassment forever!” he teased, finally standing up again, able to compose himself.

“Fuck this echo!” Harry yelled out as he stood up again, holding onto the pole as he looked over the view again.

“Fuck the beach, fuck the mountains, what don’t you fuck, Harry?” Louis teased, coming up beside him.

Harry looked at him deadpan then, not an ounce of sarcasm on his face when he said, “Women.”

And well, that just made Louis lose it all over again. Harry didn’t seem to get it, trying to pull him up while saying, “I’m serious!” between giggles.

An older couple came up trying to enjoy the view. Louis tried to act normal again, but it was near impossible with Harry around, both of them sending each other off every few minutes.

“Excuse me?” the older woman said to them. Louis figured they were about to get told off for not respecting the space or some other bullocks when she held out her phone. “Could you take our picture?”

“Oh. of course.” Harry smiled, waiting for them to pose before he snapped a few of them.

The woman smiled and asked, “Would you like us to take some of you and your boyfriend as well?’

“Oh-” Louis went to butt in, but Harry was quicker, handing her the polaroid camera and pressing his cheek against Louis’ with a big smile. Louis was too in shock to do much but stare into the camera, but it was too late. The woman handed them back the camera, and her and her husband continued back down the trail, talking about how cute young love is.

*

That night, as much as they wanted to sleep in the car, it was way too hot, even with the window open.

For the first time on this trip, Louis was thankful for Randy. They pulled the giant floaty off the top of the car, and lay it on their campsite as a makeshift mattress. Though not as comfy as he would have liked, Louis had been sleeping in a car for the last week, so it couldn’t get much worse then that.

“I like that you can see the stars from here,” Harry said, as he lay facing up on Randy. “Reminds me of home.”

“Where is home for you?” Louis asked. For as long as they had spent together over the last week, Louis didn’t know very much about Harry. He was so glad for these quiet moments. Since everything around Harry seemed to be chaotic all the time, they didn’t get much time to just talk about life, and why they were both here.

“Oh look! A shooting star” Harry said, before he could answer the question. It quickly caught Louis’ attention as he looked back up at the sky, away from Harry’s face.

“You see that there?” Harry asked. Louis just nodded, following where his finger was pointing.

“That's the Milky Way.” He smiled. “And if you look a little over there,” he continued, moving his arm over. Louis' eyes followed it best he could, as he tried to keep focus on the night sky and not Harry's lips slowly moving and explaining different stars to him.

“How do you know all this?” he asked, when Harry finally took a moment to stop pointing out what felt like every star in the sky.

“I studied, before I came here,” he said simply.

“You amaze me, Styles.” Louis shook his head.

“Good.”

👽

Pulling up to the strip was unlike anything Louis had ever seen. The bright lights glowed from the distance, red and yellow passing over Harry’s face as he looked around in awe.

“What is this place, Lou?” Harry whispered, trying not to break the spell that seemed to flow in the van.

The whole scene in front of him looked almost dream-like; pearly lights flashing, people walking by in all stages of laughter, Niall dressed as an alien trying to get people to ‘believe in the unbelievable.’

Louis slammed on the brakes, thankful for the red light in front of him. The world seemed to crash around him, the actual noise of glass shattering as a woman broke a beer bottle holding it out to a man and daring him to step closer.

Dream over. Welcome to Las Vegas.

“Niall? What the fuck?” Louis yelled, rolling his window down. Niall seemed to stop whatever he was shouting at people to look over, alien googly eyes shaking around with him as he did.

“Louis! No way!” Niall yelled, running towards them. It was more of a waddle than anything, the giant costume weighing the Irishman down. Niall leaned into the car and Louis could smell the alcohol on his breath instantly.

“I was just about to come in,” Niall said, throwing the side door open. The light had gone green already, and people were starting to honk. It didn’t faze Niall apparently. Louis wouldn't think so, if he was spending his time yelling about something not even real.

Within seconds, the giant shittily painted sign was thrown in the back of the van, with Niall in tow, and Louis continued his drive down the Las Vegas strip.

“What are you doing here?” Niall asked, leaning over the front seat, one of his eyes knocking Louis’ cheek as he did.

“Well, you know, the whole road trip thing. What are you doing?” Louis asked.

“Working,” Niall said easily. “But I’m done for the night. We should catch up; I know a good club on the strip.”

“Well, Harry and I, um, we had plans to-”

“You said when we got here you just wanted to get lit,” Harry said. “The lights around here are bright enough, so I’m sure we can go along with this man and his fun costume.”

“Great,” Niall said, clapping his hands together. “Let's get to it.”

The bar they arrived at was everything Louis dreamed of when coming to Vegas.

Gogo dancers were on the small stage in front of them as men threw bills at them. Slot machines covered the back wall and everyone around them seemed to have drinks almost as tall as their bodies. 

A man threw up in front of them, and shit that was about to _be_ them with the way that Niall had been ordering drinks.

Niall was just as odd as he remembered him on the plane, and though he seemed interested in what Louis was saying to him, he seemed more interested in typing on his phone. 

“Where did you find Harry?” Niall finally asked, slipping his phone into his pocket. They had both lost Harry somewhere in the bar. The last Louis had seen of him, he’d been sporting a fruity drink and talking to one of the dancers.

“He actually like, washed up on the beach, if you can believe that,” Louis laughed. “We’ve been together ever since. He’s quite different, but quite fun.”

“Interesting,” Niall said. “Tell me more; has he always acted... alien like?”

“I mean he’s a bit eccentric,” Louis said, sipping his beer. He knew Harry was different, but he would never go as far as to describe him as alien like. Though considering he found Niall screaming about them on the side of the road, he probably figured everyone was “alien like.”

“Speak of the devil,” Niall said as Harry sauntered up to them, a tray of shots in his hand.

“These are from the dancers; they seem to like me.” He winked. Louis didn’t like the sour taste that put in his mouth, so he reached over, quickly tipping back one of the many shots Harry had on the tray.

“Do you have alcohol? Where did you come from?” Niall asked.

Harry didn’t seem to notice, the music of the club loud around them as he yelled, “Bottom’s up!”

The rest of the night Louis only remembered in small blips. Weird things. Things he’s not even sure happened, or if his alcohol filled brain made up.

There was music. It was loud and always thrumming through his brain. And dancers. He could only slightly remember Harry hobbling on stage in Niall’s alien costume. Dollar bills being thrown at him as he tried to remove the thing; they may have only been coming from Louis himself.

He remembered a chapel, and Elvis standing at the end of the aisle as he made his way down. It was fuzzy after that, but he did remember a ring pop on Harry's ring finger for the rest of the evening.

The last thing he remembered before he passed out was stupidly handing Niall the keys, and watching with blind faith as he sped off while he and Harry gripped onto Randy, screaming out into packed streets as people cheered them on.

His first thought when he woke up that morning was that he needed to find some curtains for the Van. He was tired of waking up to the sun in his eyes and his hungover brain couldn’t take it. It was only when he shifted over and heard a loud squeak from under him that he realized he wasn’t in the Van, but on top of it, sleeping on Randy.

He quickly sat up, noticing Harry fast asleep beside him. They were definitely not in vegas anymore, mountains in view far off into the distance and empty desert around them.

Niall was back outside, walking around yelling with his costume and sign again. This time his nonsense was only thrown at a tiny shack with a parking gate.

Louis’ bare feet hit the ground, unsurprised that he lost his shoes somewhere during the night. That didn’t stop him from walking right up to Niall and ripping the sign out of his hand.

“Where the fuck are we?” he asked.

Niall frowned, looking around them. “isn’t it obvious?” he asked.

Louis let his eyes trail the desert, then back to Niall in his alien costume.

“We’re in Area 51, aren’t we?” Louis sighed, stomping his way back to the car. He had no idea how they got there, considering how much alcohol they all took in last night, but from his short memories, he knew he had given Niall the keys, a mistake he would never make again.

“Where are you going?” Niall asked, running back up to the van. Harry seemed to have woken up as well, slipping off the roof with a loud screech.

“I’m going- well I don’t know where I’m going. But we’re not staying here!”

“Why not?” Niall asked. “This place is amazing, and with Harry here- wait maybe we shouldn’t be here,” he said, eyeing the gate suddenly as if someone was about to scoop them up and take them away. Louis wouldn’t be surprised; they were close enough to government property that they definitely weren’t supposed to be on.

“Just get in the car, Niall. I’ll take you back then we’ll be on our way.”

“But what if I don’t want to go back?” Niall asked. He did as he was told though, hopping into the backseat as much as his costume would allow. He must have had a second thought, though, because before Louis pulled off he dumped the costume outside, along with his sign.

“You’d what? Want to come with us?” Louis asked. Harry didn’t seem to even notice this conversation, or where they were. Louis was convinced he was still drunk, if not extremely hungover.

“I’d love to! But you and the alien really need to learn to hold your liquor. You were uncontrollable last night,” Niall laughed, slapping Louis’ shoulders as he started to drive.

“That wasn’t an invite,” Louis tried to say, but Niall was already far past him.

“I can learn so much from this, and I wasn’t having any findings here anyway. This is really going to take off my career. Thank so, so much,”Niall said.

And then Louis was receiving a wet kiss on the cheek and directions on where they should go next.

👽

It took them almost ten hours to reach Yosemite. Google maps said it would only take about eight, but apparently Google maps vastly underestimated their ability to stray off track. Especially now that Niall had joined them, they were slower than ever. Although, Louis found that he didn’t mind so much. He liked spending time with the two of them. The company was nice, even if they talked about things he didn’t understand.

An hour outside of the park, Niall made them stop for _another_ bathroom break. Louis was going to kill him if he didn’t stop drinking so much _whatever_ he had in his water bottle.

Once on the road again, Louis was determined to make it without stopping again. As much as he liked to take his time, there was a goal to this trip. And as much as he didn’t want to let Harry go, he couldn’t just not do what Harry had asked of him.

“Niall, how’s the investigative journaling going?” Louis asked, effectively stopping Niall from taking another sip from his water bottle. As long as he kept Niall talking, Niall couldn’t drink and they wouldn’t have to stop for bathroom breaks. Foolproof plan.

“Oh, you know.” He waved a hand, as if Louis was supposed to know what the fuck he meant.

“Oh, yeah. No, I don’t know.” Louis shook his head and darted his eyes to the GPS again, making sure they were still on the right path.

Harry laughed, head leaned against the passenger window. Niall poked his head up front.

“You know how it is,” he repeated. “How it goes. All that.”

“Niall, I know you’re speaking English, but I don’t think they make sense in this order,” Louis said, not really all that bothered. He struggled to understand Niall at the best of times.

Niall shrugged and sat back in his seat, out of Louis’ vision again.

“Anyway,” Louis said, doing his best attempt at changing the subject. “Only forty-five more minutes until we’re there.”

“I can’t wait to see my Mac backgrounds in real life,” Niall cheered.

“Niall, I’m sorry, but what the fuck are you talking about?”

Harry continued to stay silent, probably still feeling his hangover.

“Like, you know.”

“Niall,” Louis huffed in frustration. “Obviously I _don’t_ know, as has been expressed to you a few times already.”

“Oh. Why didn’t you say so, mate?” Niall poked his head forward again. “You know the backgrounds on Mac computers? Those.”

“And Yosemite is where you’re going to see them?” Louis asked. “Is that where they take them?”

“How should I know?”

Louis held back his frustrated scream and focused back on the road. He almost missed the frequent bathroom breaks now.

“Mac?” Harry finally chipped in. “Like the cheese?”

Niall threw his head back and laughed and Louis gripped the steering wheel tighter in his hands. The landscape was flying by them at this point, and he wasn’t too sure he was keeping the speed limit.

“No,” Niall said, once he’d stopped laughing, his tone still breathless. “You don’t have Mac computers?”

“I don’t think so,” Harry answered. Louis pretended he was hearing none of this. “We have computers, but.”

“They’re just a brand. Like that phone you’ve got in your hand. It’s made by the same people,” Niall explained. “Apple.”

“Where?” Harry looked out the window again.

“No, that’s the _brand_.”

Louis wasn’t going to make it through forty-five more minutes of this.

“Louis.” Niall tapped on his shoulder. “Can we stop for the bathroom soon?”

*

A bathroom break and thirty minutes later, they finally pulled into the park. The trees were so tall that Harry craned his neck out the window to see their tops and the mountains barely poked out behind them. Louis wasn’t sure he’d ever been somewhere so beautiful. It was more peaceful already, no other cars around like he had expected.

“Find a place to park so I can take photos,” Niall ordered.

“Which one of us is driving?” Louis grumbled, but started searching for signs as he drove. Eventually, there was a small lot to pull into it, and he parked, thankful to stretch his legs somewhere other than a gas station bathroom.

“It’s gorgeous,” he said, coming around the side of the van. “You don’t see much of this in England.”

“No, you do not,” Niall agreed. He pulled out his phone to start taking photos. Harry was silent through it all, eyes wide as he took it in.

“You okay?” Louis asked under his breath, nudging the man slightly. “You’re uncharacteristically quiet.”

“I knew Earth could be beautiful, but I didn’t know it could look like this,” he said. “Every day I find something new I think I am going to miss.”

Louis ignored the pang in his own chest at that. “Don’t get too sad on me now. We’ve still got loads of time together. Plenty of time for you to get sick of America.”

“It’s not just America that I’m gonna miss,” Harry said, and it was exactly what Louis was afraid he would say.

“Plenty of time to get sick of me too,” he teased.

Harry turned to him, looking appalled. “I would never get sick of you, Lou. We’re friends.”

“We are friends.” Louis nodded, agreeing. “But sometimes friends get sick of each other. It happens.”

“Not us,” Harry said, and he sounded so sure of himself that Louis didn’t try to argue any more. He didn’t think he would ever get sick of Harry, for all his quirkiness and strange knowledge, but he didn’t know if the same could be said in reverse. What if Harry thought he was boring?

“Not us.” Attempting to direct the conversation in a more positive direction, he asked, “What do you want to do?”

“Take pictures,” Niall answers, coming up to join them.

“I want to hike,” Harry added.

“I don’t want to hike.”

Harry pouted. “But I want to hike.”

He sounded so offended that Louis almost took pity on him. But as it stood, he was feeling a little tired after driving for so long. Like Niall, he didn’t want to hike.

“We could take one of those tours,” Louis offered. “It's like a tractor and it gives you a tour of part of the park.”

Harry continued to pout. Louis found it way too adorable, like a kitten that had been woken too early from its nap.

“I want to do that,” Niall said. “It’s two against one, Harry. I am afraid you’re going to have to ride the tractor.”

“I don’t like tractors,” Harry grumbled.

“I’m not convinced you know what a tractor is.”

Harry stuck his tongue out at Niall. There was distant laughter from families on vacation, enjoying the late afternoon sunshine. Louis didn’t want to get in the middle of this; on one hand, Louis didn’t ever want to upset Harry. On the other hand, he didn’t want to go hiking.

His laziness won out.

“We’re doing the tractor tour,” Louis decided.

“You guys do that,” Harry said. “But I am going to go hiking.”

“I don’t think that’s safe—”

Niall cut him off. “I think that’s a lovely idea.”

Louis darted his eyes at Niall, glaring at him the best he could.

“Harry’s a big kid. He can take care of himself.”

“Yeah, Louis.” Harry crossed his arms over his chest, solidifying the grumpy kitten look. “I can take care of myself.”

Louis closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and counted to ten. When he opened them, Harry and Niall were still standing there, just with more confused expressions across their faces.

“Fine.”

Harry broke out into a wide smile, rivaling the sunlight filtering in through the trees.

“But,” Louis added, “you meet up back here in two hours. No longer. If you’re not back here in exactly two hours or less from this moment, I’m calling the park rangers to come look for you. For some reason, you are my responsibility.”

“Thank you, Lou,” Harry said. He leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to Louis’ cheek, something Louis opted to ignore. “I will be back here in one hundred and twenty minutes.”

The fact that he could do math surprised Louis for a moment, but he didn’t know why. Harry was an adult and adults could do math, usually. He just needed to relax. He was going insane.

Louis watched him walk down a trail, holding his polaroid in one hand and the phone in another.

“Mate, he’ll be fine,” Niall assured him, patting his back. “He made it all the way from his home to you without you holding his hand; he can spend two hours hiking in a park without you.”

“Yeah, well,” Louis huffed. Harry’s form disappeared from his view, hidden by the tall trees and wide shrubbery. “What if he’s not fine? I would never forgive myself. There’s no cell service. What if he gets lost?”

“He’s not going to get _lost_ ,” Niall said, sounding exasperated. “Can we just fucking go ride the tractor now?”

The man giving the tractor tour yelled at them from a megaphone, while they were all pulled along in an attached trailer. They were going so fucking _slow_ , and Louis was growing antsier every second that he sat there, pulled through the park. It was gorgeous, he had to give that up, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Harry.

Niall noticed, of course.

“Why didn’t you just fucking _go_ with him then?” he huffed. “If you’re not even going to enjoy the gorgeous scenery around us, then why are you sitting in this tractor with me?”

“Technically we’re in a trailer being pulled by a tractor,” Louis said. He didn’t have an answer, not one that either of them would believe.

Maybe he felt he needed to give Harry space. It was more believable that he needed his space from Harry, though. He was already too attached to the boy and it’d been just a little less than a week together. What was he going to do when they finally got to Washington? He needed to be more careful.

He watched the park pass beside them, crawling along at a pace that was almost slow enough to find irritating. The trees only seemed to get taller the further they went along, and he was slightly disappointed that they hadn’t seen any wild animals. He expected a bear, or _something_.

“Where do you think the bears are?” Louis leaned over to ask Niall. “Like, in hiding?”

“Louis, what are you talking about?”

“Bears.” He shrugged. If Niall wasn’t going to give him answers, he’d find them somewhere else. He turned to the couple sitting in front of them and talked to them for a little bit, finding out that most of the wildlife was more active at dusk, which is when more traffic jams happened in the park. Even though it was explicitly stated against on signs through the park, people couldn’t help themselves from climbing out of their cars and trying to snap photos.

“Ah. Bears.” Niall nodded like it made sense now. “Still worried about Harry?”

“I wasn’t,” Louis answered honestly. “I’d been more thinking about bears.”

“And now you’re worried about Harry?”

“Well now that you keep bringing it up, yeah.”

Niall pursed his lips. “Tour’s almost over anyway. We’ll beat him back probably.”

“Maybe he’ll be waiting for us when we get there,” Louis said, voice rising hopefully. They both knew that wouldn’t happen.

“Ha!” Niall threw his head back and laughed. “You are a joker, Tomlinson.”

*

Of course, Harry wasn’t waiting for them when they made it back to the place they left him. They decided to wait for his return in the van, hopeful they would be able to spot him emerging from the trees or down one of the pathways.

“How often do you think people get lost in these woods and never come back?” Niall asked.

“Jesus, Niall, read the room.” Louis squinted, as if that would help him see through the trees and bushes and other foliage blocking his view.

It wasn’t getting late yet, and technically Harry had ten minutes to show up before Louis could truly start getting worried. He was still prepared to go grab the park rangers, though.

Ten minutes came and went, and there was still no sign of Harry. Now, Louis was allowed to be worried. Niall still seemed calm as ever, assuring him that Harry was an adult who was doing just fine. Louis understood half of what he said most of the time, half because of his thick Irish accent and half because Louis was lost in his own mind, conjuring up all sorts of anxiety-inducing scenarios about why Harry was late.

Another five minutes and Louis was properly sweating with nerves, while Niall attacked a banana he had seemingly pulled from nowhere.

“Should I get the park rangers?” Louis asked, ready to hop from the van.

“Lou, it’s been five minutes,” Niall tried to calm him down.

“Yeah, but we don’t know how long he’s been lying there waiting for someone to rescue him. He could have been attacked by a bear as soon as left him so it’s been _two hours_ since and he’s slowing dying—”

“Enough with the bears!” Niall snapped, throwing a chunk of banana at his cheek. It bounced and landed on the floor of the van. “He’s literally walking up right now.”

“What?”

Louis snapped his head around and sure enough, Harry was strutting casually up to the van. He had half a smile on his face and he’d developed a nice pink color on the bridge of his nose, which Louis thought fit him pretty well.

Harry climbed into the passenger side, sighing happily as he sunk into the seat.

“Where have you been, young man?” Louis asked, as sternly as he could. He didn’t manage very well, concern seeping into every word.

“Taking a hike,” Harry answered simply.

“That’s what I told him,” Niall said around the last mouthful of his banana.

“Do you want to see my pictures?” Harry asked, and Louis felt he deserved an _explanation_ but he wasn’t sure what for.

“Sure, Harry, I would love to,” he said instead.

Harry pulled open his phone and laid the polaroids flat on the bench between them. They were gorgeous, of course, sunlight filtering in between the trees as he captured shots of flowers and squirrels and anything else that came close enough for him to capture. The last photo stopped Louis in his tracks, and he held it up to closer inspect.

“Is this a bear?” he asked.

“Enough with the bears, Louis, Jesus-”

“Niall, shut up. Look at this. Is this not a bear?” He shoved the photo in Niall’s face.

“Harry, did you...did that bear let you _pet_ her?” Niall’s jaw dropped as he studied it closer.

Louis yanked it back, needing a second look. “Harry is that _your_ hand?”

“Yep.” Harry smiled proudly and unlocked his phone. “I got a selfie with her, too.” He handed over his phone for the pair to gawk at. “She didn’t tell me her name, but she was very nice.”

“Is this real?” Louis couldn’t believe it. The photo on the screen was of Harry cuddled close to the bear’s face, smiling wide. There was no way it was a real photo. Harry had to just be good at photoshop.

“Of course,” he answered, like that was supposed to be the obvious choice.

“You didn’t spend a few hours photoshopping this to pull one over on us?” Louis raised his eyebrows and widened his eyes.

“I don’t know what photoshop is.”

“This has to be a dream,” Louis muttered to himself. “This isn’t real. None of this is real. It can’t be real. This is not real.”

“Louis, you’re going off the deep end, buddy,” Niall interrupted. He placed a hand on Louis’ shoulder. “It’s easier if you just accept it.”

Louis nodded wordlessly.

“Let’s see the other photos you took.”

Niall began swiping through them, his eyes widening with each swipe of his thumb. Louis couldn’t figure out what could be more surprising than Harry’s selfie with an actual bear, but he wasn’t sure he even wanted to find out.

“Did you just steal these off the internet?” Niall asked, handing the phone back over.

“No.” Harry shook his head. “I still don’t really understand how the internet works.”

“So you _took_ those?”

Harry’s face busted into a bright smile, crinkles forming by his eyes and dimples deepening. Sure, maybe Harry was a little weird, but Louis was willing to put up with it (more than willing) if he kept smiling like _that_.

“Mate, these look exactly like those Apple backgrounds on like, Macs and stuff.”

Louis furrowed his eyebrows. “Hand it over.” He made grabby hands towards the phone.

Swiping through the photos, Louis could see that Niall was right. Louis distinctly remembered these pictures flashing across his screen when he first bought his laptop before he changed it from the default wallpapers to the one of him and his mates. There was no way Harry took these just now.

“Harry, when did you take these?” he asked. He continued swiping through the pictures until he got to the end, then started swiping in the opposite direction.

“An hour ago.”

“I think this is a battle we’re going to have to let go, too,” Niall said, clapping his hand against Louis’ shoulder again. He gave it a tight squeeze before letting it drop again. “So where are we off to next?”

👽

Arriving in San Francisco was completely different than Louis had thought. It was dark, for one, and as they drove through downtown he thought he saw more men in suits on scooters than people actually driving, despite the rain pouring down. To the left of him was a man making a million dollar deal, and to the right, someone eating out of the garbage. It was a stark contrast compared to any other city they had been to so far, and he wasn’t sure if he liked it yet.

Their van seemed to draw attention, be it the fact that it was a vintage Volkswagen, not something you would see everyday, or the fact that they still had Randy, that stupid giant shark tied to the roof. Though it had come in clutch for sleeping arrangements - they didn’t all fit in the back seat anymore - it was still a big attention grabber, not something you wanted in a big city.

The plan had been simple: drive close enough to San Francisco, park at some beach near the highway and take the BART into the city early the next morning, visiting as many touristy things they could in a day before moving on, due to the high prices and lack of parking spaces.

Niall however, didn’t like this plan as it didn’t include driving to the _Full House_ home or taking a tour through the museum of ice cream. Harry had been quick to agree with him. He still had his weird issues with salt water so he didn’t want to be anywhere near the beach.

So now Louis was stuck driving in the middle of downtown, trying to find a parking spot big enough for his van but close enough that they wouldn’t get soaked walking to the museum.

“Stop! Right there!” Niall yelled into his ear, his head hanging over the seat from the back. Louis hit the brakes, looking at the spot that was now behind him.

“Hold on,” he mumbled, reversing back. He got halfway into the spot as someone coming in the front took the other half, both cars now stuck half parked. Louis looked back in his rear view, slamming on the horn as he did so.

“Fuck off!” he yelled, trying to inch back into the spot more. The other car did the same, inching forward and not giving up.

“Harry take the wheel! I’m going to talk to them,” Louis said, opening up his door. Niall was in the front seat before Harry could move.

“Aliens don’t drive,” Niall said. “Harry, go get our tickets.”

“Whatever,” Louis said, walking up to the woman in the car. So much for not getting soaked.

He could tell before she rolled down her window that this woman was going to be a Karen. Be it because of her short haircut, her husband snoozing beside her, or the three girls in the back listening to a Kidz Bop version of some rap song. When you saw one, you just knew.

“I signaled,” was all she said at first, causing Louis to roll his eyes.

“So did I,” he replied.

The woman looked affronted, probably never having been told no to before. Louis just raised his brows.

“I’ve got three precious girls in the back, fresh haircuts might I add; I can’t have them ruining them before we get to dinner,” she said, flipping her hair from her eyes. “Now if you would just like to find another spot that would be wonderful.” She rolled the window up, effectively ending the conversation.

Louis knocked on the window again, his hair now flat to his forehead as water dripped down his face. The woman cracked it open again, this time practically a hairline. “I have a fucking giant van. This is the only spot we’ll fit. So why don’t you and your ‘precious daughters’ go find somewhere else yeah?” 

“This is my spot! I signaled” she yelled. This seemed to catch her daughters’ attention, who all came up to bat for their mother, now four girls yelling at him instead of one.

“I have nowhere to be, lady. This van? That's my bedroom. I could be here all night.”

“Gerald!” the woman yelled, the man beside her now bumbling awake, looking around.

“Francine, why are you taking this man's spot?” he asked, looking between Louis and the van in front of him. This was obviously not the response she was looking for because within seconds she reversed out and sped off, looking for the next available spot.

Niall reversed the rest of the way in, the van coming to a stop with a loud clunk.

“What a bitch,” Niall said as Louis slid into the back of the car in search of a dry pair of clothes . He didn’t want to walk the museum completely soaked.

Harry came running back to the car just as he was getting his jeans up. He climbed back into the passenger seat, eyeing Louis’ naked chest just for a moment before looking over to Niall. “Museum’s closed. Doesn’t open till tomorrow morning.”

“For fuck’s sake, Niall!” Louis said as he pulled a dry shirt over his head, Harry's eyes back on his again as he did so.

“So what now then?” Harry asked, looking between them.

“I guess we just do one of Louis’ lame ideas now so we can come here tomorrow morning.”

“Hey,” Louis huffed. He wasn’t’ able to get another word out though because Niall pulled out of the spot with the same velocity as the Karen, and Louis was thrown back into his seat, the only thing he was able to do was pull his seatbelt on.

*

“See this is why I wanted to come here during the day,” Louis said, as they passed another closed shop.

They had ended up at Pier 39, a normally very busy tourist spot from what Louis had read, except now it was completely empty, sans a small restaurant and the few people fleeing from the rain. You could still see Alcatraz, its bright light spinning around to light up the sea around them. It would hit them every few seconds, shining through against the windows of the now closed businesses.

“We can still have some fun,” Harry said, coming up to his side. “I mean, you wanted to see that jail, and there it is, what else is there to do around here?”

“What else is there- Harry! Look around you,” Louis said, waving his arms frantically at everything around him as if trying to knock some sense into the boy.

“Yeah and? We can shop everywhere…” Harry said. “Not much else here.”

“Except the sea lions,” a woman said as she was walking past. “Sea lions are still out, and you can get a pretty good view, considering no one’s here.” She chucked, and then she was off, trying to escape the rain with another woman beside her.

“Let’s go to the sea lions then, I guess,” Louis said, following from the corner where the women had come from.

They could hear them the closer they got, and suddenly when Louis turned to the water, there was only what he could describe as a mountain of sea lions, all piled up on wooden planks, honking as loud as they could, even as late as it was. He couldn’t do anything but laugh.

“These are... not what I expected,” Harry said, moving closer to the water. One of the sea lions slipped off the plank, sending a big splash towards them. Harry jumped back, like they weren’t already soaked from the rain, which only seemed to be pouring harder around them.

“And what did you expect of them, then?” Louis asked, still laughing from before.

“I don’t know, like the lions from the zoo, but the sea version,” he said. “Not giant wet rats.”

Niall cackled at that, Louis following suit quickly after him.

“Is that what you actually thought?” Niall asked through his laughs. He shook his head then froze. “Wait, is that what you actually think?” he asked again, quickly pulling his phone out to write something down.

Louis ignored him. “Come on, Hazza, take a picture with me and the wet rats,” he said, pulling him in. Harry snapped a polaroid then shoved the camera back into his jacket, not wanting it to get wet.

Louis hung it up with the others back in the van. Although a little water damaged, he was still able to write “giant wet rats” at the bottom. And really, what more could you want from Pier 39?

*

Louis woke up outside Ghirardelli Square, decidedly not where he fell asleep the night before.

After Harry had confessed he had never had chocolate, just another odd fact about Harry he learned the night before, Niall had demanded he try some, and some of the best they could find in America. Louis had planned to come here anyway, having read about this place on a “things to do in San Francisco” page online ages ago. It didn’t seem all that it cracked up to be, appearing to be just a little shop that sold chocolate from what he could tell.

The van was silent, and empty from what he could tell, unless the other two were ready to jump scare him awake, something that had happened before. But without many hiding places inside the van, Louis quickly realized that he had been ditched.

He stumbled into the building, still wearing his joggers and way too big t-shirt from the night before. It didn’t take him long to find his travel companions, from the mountain of chocolate they had collected stacked on the tale in front of them.

Louis fell into the empty chair at their table, grabbing a wrapped chocolate square from the pile.As Harry did the same, Niall stopped Harry, pointing to the time on his phone. Louis watched Harry sigh and put the little square back as Niall wrote something down in a tiny Ghirardelli notebook with a Ghirardelli pen. So they had shopped for more than just chocolate, then.

“I don’t know what’s going on here, but as long as I can eat it, I don’t care,” Louis hummed, taking a bite of his second salted caramel square. “Also we’re going to need more of these.”

“Go buy your own,” Niall said, shifting over the pile of squares closer to himself. Louis just shrugged, reaching out for one of the many gift baskets they had on the table.

“Pay for gas, then,” he said, cracking into the wrapping. Chocolate for breakfast seemed like a great idea, after last night.

Louis was still exhausted, and if this hadn’t been one of the spots he was excited to see, he probably would have waited in the car to sleep longer. The three of them definitely didn’t fit into his van, and he missed the days when it was just him and Harry, subtly cuddling in the back. Not Niall snoring in between them while rain pelted loudly against the roof keeping him up all night.

Harry seemed just as tired by the looks of the bags under his eyes. Louis assumed if it wasn’t for the chocolate he wouldn’t be awake either.

“So quiet day today then?” Louis asked, breaking the silence between them all. It was still raining outside, not the greatest time to spend in San Francisco, but besides the Golden Gate Bridge, Louis hadn't thought of much else to see.

“Yeah,” Harry agreed, eating the chocolate Niall passed him. Louis gave them a funny look, but Niall was already to busy writing something down to notice.

“Okay, what are you doing, Niall?”

“Working,” he mumbled, setting a timer on his phone.

Louis had forgotten about that, that Niall was technically here to work. He hadn’t noticed him do much, not that he really knew what an investigative journalist did exactly.

They sat there for a few hours, Niall feeding Harry chocolate and taking notes, Louis eating any chocolate he could get his hands on. They didn’t leave until Harry threw up on the pavement outside, consuming too much for his first time, as Niall claimed. Louis really wondered what he was investigating, but was much too tired to find out.

*

San Francisco, they soon found out, was not a city made for rain. After a drive along the Golden Gate Bridge, they made their way downtown, slipping along the pavement made for drier days. And when moments later, he almost fell on his ass, Louis had enough.

“I’m calling it, I’m done with this city,” he said, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. People bumped around him, glaring in his direction until they all got out of the way.

“But what about the museum of ice cream?” Niall asked. “And the _Full House_ house?”

“You can, I’m done. I’m soaked, I’m tired, I’m taking my van and driving out to the beach for the last time before we head east.”

“Okay, dick,” Niall said. Harry just stood between them, appearing unsure of what to do.

“Oh, I’m the dick? You came here, changed my plans, and kept me up all night, and now you’re dragging me to a museum I don’t even want to go to. I’m done.”

Louis stormed off, walking towards where they had parked the van. Harry followed him, much to his satisfaction. He got in the van, turning on the heat to dry their clothes, as Louis drove off, leaving Niall to his own accord. It wasn’t until he was out of the city that he started regretting his decision.

“Should I have-”

“I already texted Niall, he’s meeting us tonight wherever we end up,” Harry said.

Louis sighed, shaking his head. “You’re perfect, you know that?”

And so it was that night; the sky cleared up, they lit a fire, and Niall joined them with 3 pints of mostly melted ice cream and a lot more stories than you’d expect from someone who’d only been gone an afternoon.

👽

Niall insisted they go to Portland, even after Louis told him that wasn’t in his original plans. The plan was to go to Seattle straight from San Francisco, but Niall wasn’t having any of it.

“Louis, I’m an _investigative journalist_ ,” Niall said, as if it was supposed to mean something. “We have to go to Portland.”

“I literally have no idea how those are connected,” Louis said honestly. He gripped the steering wheel tighter and talked himself down from swerving into oncoming traffic. Niall was driving him crazy, but he kind of loved it.

“ _Louis_ ,” he huffed, almost a frustrated groan. “Sasquatch?”

“Yes? What about him?”

“First of all, you don’t know if Sasquatch is a man,” Niall said. “Second of all, Sasquatch is in Portland.”

“Oh, since when?” Harry asked.

Louis didn’t think he liked the way these two enabled each other. Or more like it was Harry enabling Niall with his belief about Sasquatch and aliens. Particularly, Harry being an alien. Louis wished Harry would say something. Like. Say he’s not an alien.

“I don’t have a definitive timeline, but he’s been spotted there for the past six months,” Niall told him. Louis was going to pretend he didn’t hear any of this.

“Do you think he got bored of Vancouver?”

Louis couldn’t do this any longer.

“Fine!” he all but shouted. If he could let go of the wheel, he would have thrown his hands up. “We can go to Portland. Can we stop this bullshit now? You don’t have to convince me Sasquatch is real.”

“But Sasquatch _is_ real, Lou.” Harry turned his body on the bench of the van. Louis could make out the way his eyes widened, almost bulging out of his head, bringing an innocence to his features. He darted his eyes back to the road. He wasn’t going to fall into this trap.

“If I say Sasquatch is real can we change the topic?” he begged.

“No, because you don’t _believe_ it,” Niall said. “Also, can we meet up with a friend of mine?”

Louis counted to ten. Nothing changed and he adjusted his grip on the wheel.

“What kind of friend?” He was almost afraid of the answer.

“Just someone I know.”

Niall, as always, remained one of the most confusing men Louis had met. Just like Harry, he didn’t seem to want to answer any questions and his answers only generated more questions.

“He’s a big fan of my work,” Niall added. “And we’re in a few group chats together. Good lad. I’d trust him with my life.”

“Have you ever met him?” Louis wasn’t too fond of the idea of just meeting up with a stranger, but he thought that made him hypocritical, all things considered. All things being Harry, who literally washed up on top of him at the beach, and Niall who he’d met on the plane. He didn’t think he had much of a place to say anything about stranger danger in this instance.

“Online.”

Louis sighed. If he gripped the steering wheel any tighter, he thought he might snap it. He loosened his grip and tried to relax the tension in his shoulders. This trip was going to give him grey hairs.

“Yeah, fine. But we’re meeting him in a public place.”

Niall fist-pumped in the backseat, his hand darting in view of the rearview mirror. “You’re going to love him, mate, I promise.”

“I don’t believe you, but also I don’t have the energy to fight you,” Louis said with a sigh. The more people he added to this trip, the more he seemed outnumbered in his sanity. He wondered if he’d believe in aliens by the end of the trip and then laughed to himself at the thought.

They were about six hours into the trip and set to arrive by early evening. Hopefully that meant they could grab a nice dinner with Niall’s friend and then be safely on their way to find somewhere to park for the night and go to bed. He was sure they wouldn’t make it out of the city without getting into some kind of trouble the next day, so he wasn’t too keen on doing anything that night.

Niall’s bathroom breaks remained consistent the rest of the way there, but he and Harry chatted on and on about Sasquatch and potential places they could find him (her? Them? Louis hadn’t received a concrete answer).

The city appeared slowly before them just short of five hours later, buildings slowly appearing as cars zipped past them. Louis still wasn’t too comfortable driving in America, and American drivers could definitely tell. He received more than a fair few middle fingers pointed in his direction from drivers who tried to get around him.

Niall rattled off an address for where they were supposed to meet his friend and within thirty minutes, they were parked on the street in front of a hole in the wall restaurant, warm colors easily inviting them in to eat.

“So who are we looking for?” Louis asked as they walked in to the front of the restaurant. There were maybe five whole tables in the place, and only two of them were occupied by couples, quietly eating their meals.

“He’s not here yet,” Niall said, scanning the small room.

“I didn’t think so, considering there’s literally no one here-”

His sentence was cut off by someone screaming Niall’s name from right behind them and then wrapping the man in a tight hug, rocking them side to side. Louis couldn’t get a good look at him, but from what he could see, the man had light brown hair and was about the same height as Niall. Not enough to be able to pick him out in a line-up.

“Payno!” Niall screeched, startling the whole restaurant. All two couples.

“Niall!” ‘Payno’ repeated, albeit quieter this time. They broke apart, and Louis could see that the newcomer’s face was broken into a smile, one so wide that it rivaled Harry’s own.

“This is Harry,” Niall said, turning to introduce his friend. “He’s the one I’ve been telling you about.”

“Nice to meet you, Harry.” Payno shook Harry’s hand, and Louis tried not to glare at him. He felt a rush of something protective rush through him as he watched the exchange. He wasn’t so sure he liked the idea of Niall talking about Harry to anyone (as if it was his place to be worried, Louis scolded himself).

“And this one is Louis,” Niall said, gesturing wildly with his arm.

“I’ve heard about you too, don’t worry,” Payno assured him, reaching to shake his hand. “I’m Liam. Nobody calls me Payno except Niall, but I will answer to it.”

Louis decided he liked Liam, despite his initial instinct. He had a firm handshake and nice eyes. And he hadn’t tried to kill any of them yet. That was all that really mattered to Louis.

“This is the guy that doesn’t think Harry’s an alien?” Liam continued.

Louis took it back. He didn’t like Liam.

“Correct.” Niall nodded. “Now can we sit down? I’m _tired_.”

*

Louis was playing hot and cold on his feelings for Liam. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but he also enabled both Harry and Niall with the whole ‘alien’ thing. Harry laughed at all of their jokes and Niall seemed to make even more with Liam around. Louis was feeling even more outnumbered with Liam’s addition to the group.

He took a deep breath and counted to ten. He only needed to get through one dinner, and then things would go back to the normal they had created for themselves the past few days. As normal as things could be when he was traveling with people like Niall and Harry.

“I’ve been following Niall’s work for _years_ ,” Liam said, talking about how he and Niall knew each other. “He’s the best investigative journalist around.”

“Niall, what is it exactly that you investigate?” Louis asked, cutting into the chicken in front of him. He took a bite and looked to Niall, waiting eagerly for his answer.

“Don’t worry about it,” Niall said, waving him off. Turning to Liam, he added, “This one worries too much.”

“I’m literally right here-”

Niall continued on, “I am a respected investigative journalist and that’s all you need to know.”

“The more defensive you get, the more suspicious I become,” Louis grumbled, but Niall either didn’t hear him or chose to ignore him.

“Harry, how are you liking America?” Liam asked, effectively changing the subject.

“I love it!” Harry exclaimed, dropping his fork back on to his plate so he could wave his hands all around. “It’s gorgeous and everyone is so nice. Louis and Niall have been the best people to help me get to the president.”

“The president?” Liam furrowed his eyebrows. “You’re going to see the president?”

Harry nodded enthusiastically. “I need to see him.”

“How are you going to see the president? You can’t just-”

Louis cut him off by raising his hand. “Liam, we’re taking Harry to see the president.”

“Right,” Liam said, stretching the word out. “You’re going to see the president and Harry’s not an alien. Both things can be true if you believe hard enough.”

Niall choked on a bite of his chicken from laughing so hard, while Harry only stared in confusion. Louis had never been happier to see their server so he could ask for the check and end their time with Liam, as nice as he was. Louis couldn’t handle what was essentially another Niall.

*

In the morning, Niall announced that he was going to look for Sasquatch by waking Harry and Louis as violently as possible before the sun had even risen and slamming the van door shut. This left Louis wide awake and unable to fall back asleep, uncomfortable and stiff. He sat up and stretched his back, listening to the way it popped. Harry did the same, smiling sleepily at Louis, sun just rising over the horizon behind him, a perfect background to the way he rubbed the drowsiness from his eyes.

“Ready to take on Portland?” Louis asked, forcing himself to stop staring. It was creepy, he told himself.

“I’ve always wanted to visit Portland,” Harry confessed. “Something about it just called to me.”

“Probably because Portland’s for the weirdos of the world,” Louis said.

Harry cocked his head, expression confused. “What does that mean?”

“Just, uh, that you’re a little, maybe, strange,” Louis stuttered. “And people in Portland have been generalized to be strange and so maybe, uh, you might fit in?” His voice rose in pitch near the end.

“Oh.” Harry pondered it for a moment, bottom lip jutted out. “Makes sense. I like that. Maybe I will love it here even more.”

“As long as we’re up, I actually have something for us to do today.” Louis pulled out his phone and powered it on. “I read online that we can do a sunrise aerial tour of Portland, and they have donuts and coffee. I figure it’s a good way to see the city, maybe ask a few questions, and also get some food in us.”

Harry smiled, not quite as wide as his normal smiles, but it was still before sunrise. “That sounds lovely.”

*

Portland was beautiful from the sky, packed into the aerial tram. Harry pressed his nose to the window and completely ignored the donuts and coffee that had been passed out to them. The sun was making its way through the sky, lighting everything in pink and orange hues. Harry snapped picture after picture on his phone, pointing at things like an excited child.

Louis was hopelessly endeared.

The tram made a few stops at locations they deemed significant enough. They stopped long enough to take a few pictures in front of statues and buildings, but mostly Harry made friends with the older couples along for the ride with them.

“You two are cute, you know that?” one woman said to Louis, an eyebrow raised as they watched Harry animatedly explain something to who Louis assumed was her husband.

“Oh, thanks, but we’re not-” Louis cut himself off. It didn’t matter what this stranger thought of his and Harry’s relationship. He smiled. “Thank you.”

The tour ended just an hour after it began, right in the same place where it had picked them up.

“The sky is my favorite way to get around,” Harry stated. “You can see everything and I love being so high up.”

“The man takes two sky trams and thinks he’s a sky traveller,” Louis joked with a snort.

“I _am_ a sky traveller,” Harry protested, but there was no heat behind it. Instead, he pulled them in the direction of a park, claiming he needed photos in front of all of the trees.

Louis snapped picture after picture of Harry in front of every tree in the park. He did a different pose each time, but the smile never fell from his face. Once he was sure they had visited every tree, Louis asked him if there was anywhere he’d like to go next. Before Harry could answer, however, Niall and Liam came barreling from the trees, both breathless and panting.

“Dudes!” Niall exclaimed once he noticed them, startling a poor woman just trying to take her morning jog.

“Niall, you’re so sweaty-”

Niall cut Louis off by grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him ferociously. Liam looked just as spooked behind him, face ghostly pale and eyes wide.

“ _Dudes_ ,” he repeated, putting more emphasis on the word. “You will never believe what we saw in there.”

“Sasquatch?” Harry guessed, and Louis tried to ignore the hopefulness in his tone. He wasn’t going to enable this. Nope. He wouldn’t.

“Yes!”

Niall shook Louis one last time and then ran over and did the same thing to Harry.

“You saw Sasquatch?” Harry asked, amazement soaking his words. “Was he just like you thought he would be?”

“He was so tall,” Liam finally spoke, words quiet. “He was...so tall.”

Niall spun back around, blinking his eyes tightly. He was obviously frightened about something, but Louis refused to believe it was about Sasquatch.

“Can we get out of here? Of Portland?” he begged. “We got to go.”

“We just got here-”

“Louis! Trust me, mate. We have got to get out here.”

“Did you piss off Bigfoot?”

“Sasquatch,” Liam corrected. “And we might have.”

“Right.” Louis nodded, not wanting to enable them. He wouldn’t do it. He refused.

“Louis, _please_ ,” Niall begged again. “If you love me at all, we will drive to wherever you want to go next.”

“I just met you, so not sure how I could love you, but fine. If Harry is okay with us moving on to the next stop, then we can move to the next stop.”

The trio turned their eyes towards Harry, who bit his lip and thought it over for a second. Finally, his face lit up in a smile. “Yeah, let’s go.”

Niall fist-pumped and turned to pull Liam into a tight hug.

“Well, Liam,” Louis said. “It was so lovely to meet you, but this is where we part.”

Niall and Liam’s eyebrows furrowed, twin expressions crossing their faces.

“Liam’s coming with us,” Niall said, as if it was obvious.

“What?”

“Liam’s coming with us,” he repeated. Liam nodded beside him.

“When did we decide-”

Harry cut him off with a loud cheer. “Liam, you’re going to have so much fun with us!”

Louis should have driven into a tree when he had the chance.

*****

**Seattle**

With Liam now on the trip with them, driving became a lot easier. It was less on Louis now and more on the other boys, though Harry still never took the wheel, Niall claiming it was because aliens shouldn’t be trusted on the road, whatever that meant.

Seattle was their next destination, and it was only a short two hours from Portland. It was only noon once they reached the city.

Seattle was one of the places Louis was most excited for. He had wanted to check out Pike Place and the space needle. And, as much as his sisters teased him about it, he was excited to visit the first Starbucks. 

When he mentioned it though, he was only met with teasing from the other two boys, and Harry going off about how excited he was to see the original Starbuck, as he had many at home. Louis couldn’t hear the rest of their conversation though, too focused on driving through another new city, something he still wasn’t used to.

When they finally arrived, Niall and Liam took off, claiming they had important things to discuss, and that they would report back later, whatever that meant.

Harry stood next to Louis in line, thrumming with excitement as they waited, but his mood seemed to shift as they got closer to the door, a frown now taking over his face.

“Isn’t this just that stupid coffee shop you go to?” he asked when they could finally see inside.

“I mean yeah... It's the very first Starbucks,” Louis said, trying to show enthusiasm with jazz hands.Harry didn’t seem to take the bait, instead pulling his phone out and practically ignoring Louis.

“I just thought... nevermind,” Harry said.

“What if I buy you whatever you want?” Louis asked, walking with the line as they got closer to the door.

“Bitter bean juice? No thanks,” Harry said, not looking up from his phone.

Niall and Liam appeared out of nowhere, taking place in line with them, much to the annoyance of other customers waiting.

“How did you know we were almost in?”

“Harry texted me,” Niall said. He held up his phone and read the text out loud, “In line for bitter bean juice, not real Starbucks. Send help”

“And what are real Starbucks?” Louis asked, though he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Nothing seemed to be simple with any of these people, least of all Harry.

“Money.”

“So you thought we were going to a bank,” Louis deadpanned.

“Exactly,” Harry said. “But now all we’re getting is stupid bean juice and I don’t even want to go in.”

“Next in line!” the woman yelled. The four of them shuffled into the tiny building. Niall and Liam pulled Harry aside, seemingly to “investigate” him over whatever fake money his hometown must have, the alien idea obviously not leaving their heads anytime soon.

It didn’t stop Louis from having his fun though. He picked up things for himself and his sisters, ordered his favourite frappe, and sauntered out like every white girl’s dream.

Harry was sitting outside, in near tears from what Louis could tell, so he quickly made his way over.

“What happened?” he asked, sitting down beside Harry, wrapping an arm around him the best he could with all the bags filled with souvenirs.

“Harry just found out that Washington state is not Washington D.C. Where the president is,” Niall said.

Harry looked truly glum, for obvious reasons. Louis hadn’t seen the boy sad, really ever, so far in their relationship. And he didn’t like it.

“I’m sorry I thought you knew.”

“I didn’t,” Harry sighed. “Lets just go. What disappointing thing are we going to do next?”

“Space needle?” Liam suggested.

Niall and Louis nodded, Harry just agreeing to follow along wherever they went, already disappointed from the day.

“Now what do you think a space needle is?” Niall asked him as they walked. Louis didn’t like that they seemed to be egging him on, all for their crazy theories.

“I don’t even want to know what your version is,” Harry sighed. It only caused Niall to grin wider.

“It’s that,” he said, pointing up to the tall building with the needle-like tip.

“It’s a building,” Harry said flatly.

“Yeah, one with a beautiful view of the city,” Louis said, though after he had got his Starbucks things, he didn’t really care for the rest of the city. Priorities really.

“No,” Harry said, turning away from all of them to walk back towards the car.

“What?” Louis asked, quickly turning to follow him.

“I said no. I’m done. This city fucking sucks. It ruins everything. A space needle is not a building. Starbucks is not a fucking coffee shop. And we’re not even close to the president. I’m tired. I’m sad. And I’m going back to the car to wait this one out. Go have fun without me.”

Louis couldn’t tell him he needed the keys to unlock the car, Harry was already off, disappearing from their sight. And it was too late to do anything about it.

They only found him hours later, waiting outside of the car, soaked to the bone and pouting like a child.

Louis tried to ask about it, but all he got was grumblings about something called a duck boat that was supposed to take him on a land tour, but ended with him in the water. 

Liam took the wheel again. As they left the city, Harry swore he would never enter it again.

For the first hour of their drive, Louis thought of ways he could cheer Harry up. He didn’t like seeing him so sad. It looked _wrong_ on his face. If Louis had it his way, Harry would spend all of his time smiling, dimples in full view every second of the day. Obviously, that wasn’t entirely possible, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try.

He looked through his belongings again, hoping maybe he would find something that would brighten Harry’s mood. Coming up short in his suitcase, he turned to the Starbucks bag. It seemed like it might not be a good idea, with the way Harry seemed to hate the place so much, but it was his last idea. He had nothing else to give him and no other ideas on how to make Harry happy again.

“I know you don’t like bitter bean juice,” Louis started, hiding the gift behind his back, “but maybe you’ll still take this gift I got for you?”

Harry looked at him suspiciously, eyes squinting as he stared at Louis. “What did you get me?”

“A piggy bank,” Louis said, pulling it from behind his back. It was a ceramic shaped like a Starbucks cup and painted to look like one of their bright pink drinks.

“This isn’t a pig though,” Harry stated. He reached out and took the cup anyway, eyeing it cautiously. Finally, he sighed. “Just another lie from Seattle.”

Louis couldn’t bite back the laugh that bubbled from his lips. Harry just looked so _disgruntled_.

“That’s just the name for something that holds change,” Louis explained. “I figured you could put your Starbucks in it when you go home.”

Harry’s face softened. “Thank you, Louis,” he said sincerely. “Although your Starbucks with its bitter bean juice cannot compare to my Starbucks, I still appreciate this.”

Louis pulled him in for a hug. He was just happy to see Harry’s smiling face again.

👽

Louis turned the radio up in the van, only slightly to drown out Niall’s snores wafting from the back of the car. Harry was beside him, as usual, looking like he was about to sleep as well, though he was still quietly mumbling along to Stevie Nicks’ voice flowing out of the radio.

It wasn’t until they hit a bump that it all went wrong.

Louis should have seen it coming, a bit too distracted by Harry’s lips moving to see the pot hole in the road. The van swerved slightly, only righting itself when Louis gripped the wheel tighter and slammed on the brakes. He knew it was a flat tire before they even stopped.

It was either the loud pop or the swerve of Louis pulling to the side of the road, but everyone in the car seemed to wake up, now on full alert, a stark comparison to how they were only moments ago.

“What happened?” Liam asked.

“Hit a pothole,” Louis said, turning the keys to the ignition. The van sputtered to a stop, wind howling the only thing that could be heard in the dead of night.

“So, we’re stopping here then?” Harry asked.

“Not much of a choice, Harry,” Liam said. He climbed over Niall, only knocking a few things over in his path as he stumbled out of the car. Louis followed suit, figuring he should at least try to help Liam change the tire.

Niall and Harry followed only moments later, the wind whipping through their hair as they all stood staring at the flat tire.

“When my ship was broken I just called someone to fix it. They never came though,” Harry said.

Niall and Liam eyed each other, a silent conversation Louis would never understand or even try to.

“Yeah, did you get roadside assistance, Lou?” Liam asked. The blank stare he got back was answer enough. “I’ll try and fix it then.”

Harry’s hand was in his, and before he could even attempt to help, Harry was pulling him away. They walked down the side of the barren road and looked at the stars.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” Harry asked. Louis nodded, his eyes never leaving Harry.

“Very,” he said easily, finally letting himself look around him.

They were somewhere in Idaho, mountains surrounding them and not a cloud in the sky to block the stars. It reminded Louis of the beginning of their trip, laying atop Randy under the canyon moon.

“We could probably sleep here,” Louis said, still gripping Harry’s hand as they walked lazily. “It's quiet enough, besides the wind.”

“I don’t know if I’d want to sleep,” Harry said. “The stars, they remind me of home, and if you could see that one right over there, the smaller one flickering that’s where I’m fr-”

A loud pop interrupted their conversation, echoing through the mountains along with a loud, “Fuck!”

Louis jolted, releasingHarry’s hand as he turned back to the car.

“They probably popped the spare. We should head back,” Louis said.

Nodding, Harry took one last look up before following Louis back down the highway towards the van.

The sight they arrived back to was not what Louis expected. The back of the van was still jacked up, a new tire in the middle of being screwed in by Liam, while Niall held the tools. That wasn’t what he noticed first, though. Randy, that stupid shark floatie that used to stand proudly on his roof, was now a deflated mess of grey and pink rubber flopping over the side windows.

“What happened?” Louis asked. He wasn’t even ready to look at Harry’s reaction, knowing how much he loved the stupid shark.

“Well, we were trying to fix the tire,” Liam said quietly, the wind taking away the rest of his sentence.

“We can fix him! We just need...we can call roadside assistance,” Harry said frantically. He was trying to hold up the deflated sides, as if that would blow it back up and put it back together.

Without the air in it, the ropes they had keeping it tied were no longer doing their job, and with one big gust of wind Randy was gone, flowing through the air across the road and further away into the mountains.

Louis stood beside Harry as he watched it, wrapping an arm around the him to keep him from doing something stupid like running across a highway at night after it. The shark took to the wind surprisingly well, moving quickly, almost looking like it was floating back up to the stars as it went. Going much too fast and much too high, there was no catching it, and it was almost magical to watch it roll through the sky until it was out of sight.

“I guess we need a new air mattress?” Liam asked, trying to lighten the mood.

“Just fix the fucking tire, Liam,” Louis said, going back to watching the now empty sky with Harry. 

“Randy!” Harry cried out, the name echoing through the mountains around the deserted area around them. 

👽

“What do you even do in Wyoming?” Niall asked, not for the first time. They were just outside Yellowstone, and he had been pestering Louis with questions about how they were going to spend their time. “It’s Wyoming. And we already went to Yosemite. They’re like basically the same thing, except one’s in California so that makes it better.”

“I think your logic is flawed,” Louis said. “We’re going to go hiking and act like normal people.”

“How can we act normal when Randy is _dead_?” Harry sniffed.

Louis did feel bad about that, actually. Harry was emotionally attached to Randy, and he seemed to be taking it really hard.

“We’re going to distract Harry from the death of his dear friend Randy.”

Louis tuned everyone out as he pulled onto the main road of the park, entrance in sight. He waited in the long line of cars to enter the park before pulling up next to the ranger stall.

He didn’t really believe that the man that stepped up to his window was a park ranger, with his untucked uniform top and denim shorts, but he had such long eyelashes that Louis didn’t even bother to question his authority. He took their money for the entrance fee and handed over a map of the park, sending them on their way with the instructions, “Don’t get lost.”

Louis continued down the main road, feeling more at peace the further along he went. The trees so high above him made him feel warm and safe, and they passed more than one bison that brought a smile to his face. Harry, just like he’d done at every stop before, had his face pressed to the window in amazement. His breathing fogged up the glass, but he just wiped it away with his hand before pressing his face back to it. Louis almost offered to roll the window down for him, but found this much more enjoyable to watch.

They made it to the site where they could park the van, climbing out and stretching their legs. Niall’s bathroom breaks had become less frequent, which meant less stops to walk around during their lengthy drives. As a result, Louis had suffered from an increase in leg cramps. He was grateful for the chance to walk around now.

“Hiking?” Harry asked hopefully, slipping the map out of Louis’ fingers. “I vote hiking.”

“You always vote hiking,” Niall groaned.

“We’ve been to literally one another national park,” Louis defended. While he also didn’t feel much like hiking, he wasn’t going to stand around and let Niall pick on Harry, who wouldn’t even defend himself. “I think we can go hiking.”

“But, and hear me out, what if we didn’t?”

“And what should we do instead?”

“Take a nap,” Niall suggested. “Right here.”

“Nap later, hiking now,” Louis said, hoping that it came across as stern. He wasn’t sure it did, not when Niall’s face twitched like he was holding back laughter, but he didn’t protest as they started to make their way over to the trail.

They selected the shorter of the two trails, none of them experienced at hiking and also lacking the proper gear to do the more serious trail. Louis kept Harry from falling not once, but twice, grabbing him by the back of the shirt to keep him upright.

“It’s like you’re still getting used to your legs,” Louis joked with a soft laugh.

“It’s because he’s an alien!” Niall called over his shoulder.

A panicked look crossed over Harry’s face before it smoothed out. “My legs are just too long, I guess.”

“Right,” Louis said slowly. “Anyway. When we get back to the van, we should find the place where we’re allowed to park for the night and also search for some food.”

“Sounds like a brilliant idea,” Niall agreed and Liam nodded next to him. “We should also find some alcohol.”

“What for?” Louis asked, but he knew what for. Obviously. Niall wanted to get drunk, but Louis wasn’t sure he wanted to do that. What if he said something stupid when he was drunk around Harry? What if he couldn’t keep his hands to himself? What if he tried to kiss him? His drunk self couldn’t be trusted.

“Don’t ask dumb questions,” Niall said with a snort. “I think there’s a convenience store by the place where we’re parking for the night. We can grab some alcohol and food.”

Louis knew this could only end poorly, but he didn’t really have the energy to put up a fight about it.

They came full circle and climbed back into the van so Louis could drive them to their assigned spot for the night. They passed by the convenience store Niall mentioned, only a short distance from where Louis finally stopped the van.

Niall and Liam offered to head to the store to pick up food and alcohol for them, and Harry stayed behind with Louis. They sat in the back of the van, legs intertwined as they faced each other.

“Do you like to drink, Harry?” Louis asked.

“Not demon water,” Harry answered, lips turning downward.

Louis threw his head back and laughed at the offended look on his face. “No, I meant do you like to drink alcohol?”

“Oh! Like Vegas. I didn’t like the way it made me feel the next day, but it was fun before that,” he answered honestly.

“Ah yes, a hangover.”

“Why do we drink so much of it?” Harry asked, eyebrows pulling together in confusion.

Louis shrugged. He didn’t have a really good answer. He wasn’t sure why he drank when he only liked a few types of beers, hated the way he felt the day after, and usually regretted every decision he made while drunk.

“Because everyone else does?” he offered.

“That doesn’t seem like a very good reason.”

He was saved from replying by Niall and Liam’s return, carrying bags of food and drinks. They opened the van doors and climbed inside, but Louis noticed they weren’t alone. The park ranger that had greeted them at the entrance followed them, this time dressed in grey sweatpants and a black hoodie.

“Hello,” Louis said. “Who’s this?”

“Zayn,” Niall answered, as if Louis was supposed to know who the fuck Zayn was.

“Hi Zayn. What are you doing?”

“Don’t be rude,” Niall chastised him. “He’s our friend.”

“Niall, last time you introduced me to one of your friends we ended up gaining another passenger. Liam, no offense, but that was not part of the plan. Now, you bring me another friend. We’re running low on space here.”

“I think we have plenty of space,” Liam offered up. “If we just squeeze in tight with each other.”

“I-” Louis cut himself off, took a deep breath, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Zayn, you’re more than welcome to join us for a few drinks tonight but you will have to find somewhere else to sleep.”

“Fine with me,” Zayn finally said, shrugging casually, like he really wasn’t bothered either way. “I’m assuming you’re Louis. And that makes you Harry?”

“The alien,” Niall added, ever so helpful.

“Not an alien,” Louis argued. “Just weird.”

“It’s fine either way,” Zayn said, and that was that.

Niall poured their first drinks, heavy on the vodka and light on the lemonade. Louis took a sip and wrinkled his nose, goosebumps appearing all over his arms.

“Jesus, Niall, did you put any lemonade in this at all?” he asked. “This made my nipples hard. Might as well have just done a straight shot.”

“We can do straight shots if you’re just going to be wimps about it,” Niall threatened.

“This is fine,” Louis said, taking another sip before Niall changed his mind and decided to torture all of them.

Niall handed a cup over to Harry. “I made this one sweeter for you, don’t worry.”

Harry smiled gratefully and took the cup, staring down at it suspiciously.

“It won’t bite, I promise,” Niall reassured him. “Yours will taste mostly like lemonade. Might leave your chest feeling a little warm after, but nothing painful.”

“Like you can be trusted,” Louis snorted, taking another sip from his own cup. He shuddered again as it went down, just as strong the second time around.

“Harry’s to be protected at all costs and you can handle a bit of vodka,” Niall said sternly. “Now keep drinking. I want us to hate our lives tomorrow.”

“I also have weed,” Zayn offered. Louis noticed he wasn’t holding a cup in his own hand, somehow flying under the radar enough that Niall didn’t offer him one. “If anyone here smokes.”

“As fun as I think it would be to see young Harry stoned, I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Niall said. “I think only one thing at a time is for the best.”

Louis agreed, also passing up on the offer. Liam was the only one to take him up on it, and they stepped outside to smoke their blunt together.

“Do you think there’s something going on between them?” Niall asked once they were outside the van.

“No, I hadn’t thought about it.”

“Oh.” Niall turned to Harry. “Do _you_ think there’s something going on between them?”

“Maybe.” Harry shrugged. “I finished my lemonade.”

“Jesus, Harry,” Niall said, wonder and amazement in his tone. “Next one, take it a little slower. The vodka’s gonna hit you as soon as you stand up.”

Zayn and Liam reentered the van, smelling just like weed, and Harry asked why they smelled like they had been sprayed by a skunk. Zayn pulled him for a hug and a soft kiss on the forehead, and Liam couldn’t stop laughing enough to answer. Harry still looked confused, but he didn’t ask again.

Louis liked drinking with Harry, for all of his worries. Harry turned pink and laughed at everything, even things that weren’t necessarily funny. He couldn’t hold his eyes all the way open and stumbled over his words even more than normal, and Louis loved the way it made his heart flutter.

Louis hadn’t felt this relaxed while drunk in a long time. Usually, he worried about everything - things out of his control, his actions while intoxicated, and his day to day anxieties. He found that while with Niall, Liam, Zayn, and particularly Harry, he didn’t care about the dumb things he said and did. It didn’t matter when he fell out of the van when he was trying to get out and go to the restroom because Niall did the same thing not even thirty seconds later.

When he came back from the bathroom with Niall, Zayn and Liam were seated on the ground just outside the van, lounging half on top of one another.

“Any particular reason you’re laying on the ground?” Louis asked, but he plopped down right next to them, too lazy to climb back inside. “And where’s Harry?”

“Too many questions at one time,” Liam slurred. “Try again next time.”

“Harry’s asleep in the middle of the road on the other side and Liam wanted fresh air,” Zayn answered, running his fingers through Liam’s hair.

“Harry’s asleep on the road?” Louis asked, rightfully concerned. He straightened his neck to try and see over the van to the other side, trying to catch a look. It obviously didn’t work and he slouched back down, ready to fall asleep.

“It’s not a busy road,” Zayn said, as if that made it okay. Louis really didn’t have the strength to fight him.

“How are you fine?” Niall asked, lolling his head to rest it on Louis’ shoulder.

“I only smoked and it’s been long enough that it’s worn off. So now I get to babysit you assholes.”

“Fun,” Louis said, not even taking offense. He knew what it was like to babysit the group while sober, so he felt especially bad for Zayn now that they were all drunk.

“I do have a question though.”

“Go for it.” Louis tried to shoot finger guns at him, but he wasn’t sure it worked.

“Who the hell is Randy? Harry keeps going on and on about how his friend Randy died.”

Louis threw his head back and laughed. “Harry’s dear friend. We lost him at our last stop. May he rest in peace.”

“Probably pieces,” Niall added.

“Right. Okay.” Zayn pushed Liam off of him and stood up. “I’m getting you guys in the van and then we’re continuing on with our journey. Sound good?”

“But you don’t even know where we’re going,” Louis tried to protest, but the idea of letting someone else drive for a little bit while he rested was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

“You marked it on the map,” Zayn said. He gave each of them a hand up. “Get into the van and I’ll go get Harry.”

The trio obliged, tripping over one another as they climbed into the van. They settled down without much of a fight over the stupid stuff they usually argued about, like whose blanket was whose and if they should have background music playing. Zayn came back not even a minute later, Harry tucked into his side.

Harry collapsed easily next to Louis, snuggling up to him.

“Have a nice nap in the road?” Louis asked, reaching to run his fingers through Harry’s curls.

“Not very comfy,” Harry answered.

Louis snorted and watched as his eyes closed again easily, soft snores coming from his lips not even ten seconds later. As he let himself be pulled under by the alluring promise of sleep, he swore he could hear Zayn mutter, “I don’t even know how to read a fucking map.”

👽

Louis blinked his eyes open, his head pounding as his phone buzzed again. He groaned, trying to reach for it between all the sleeping bodies piled in the back seat. Not wanting to wake anyone else up, he peeled himself off of everyone and climbed over to the front set, as fast as his hungover body would let him. He pulled on a pair of sunglasses and was shocked to see the road surrounded by mountains.

“Where are we? Why are you still driving?”

“I don’t know. I was just following your map,” Zayn said easily. Looking over, Louis could now see a map spread out between them but had no idea where it came from. His phone buzzed again and he finally looked down to read it.

“Roaming charges may apply...” he mumbled. “Zayn, where did you find the map?”

“In your glove box,” Zayn said, tapping in front of Louis. Louis had never looked in the glove box before.

“That's not mine,” he said.

“Oh, it’s not?” Zayn asked, now looking between Louis, the map, and the twisting road ahead of them.

Louis stretched, wondering where the hell Zayn had been driving them to, and how many extra days it would take to correct it. It took him a few minutes, but when he finally was able to read the map he laughed. “Zayn turn around. This map is leading us to Canada. Must have belonged to the old owner-”

“Oh we’re already in Canada; crossed the border around four this morning.”

“We’re what?” Louis yelled. Harry groggily slumped up, looking just as hungover as Louis, if not still drunk.

“We’re in Canada? Take me to the prime minister!”

“Go back to sleep, Harry,” Louis said.

“Okay,” Harry mumbled, leaning his head back against Liam and easily falling backasleep. Louis wished he could do the same.

“Stop firing, Zayn! We’re not supposed to be in Canada!”

“Where am I going to stop? We’re surrounded by mountains. Nowhere to pull over. Besides, look, it's only 10 miles to Banff National Park.”

“Kilometres if we’re in Canada,” Niall said, climbing into the front seat with them, and crushing the map as he did so.

“Shit that’s why I’m going so much faster than everyone,” Zayn said. He hit the breaks, changing from 100 miles an hours down to 100 kilometres an hour just in time as they passed a RCMP.

“I was wondering how we got here so fast.” Zayn yawned. “Anyway, anyone want to take over driving?”

“Is nobody going to talk about that fact that we’re in Canada?” Louis asked, pulling the map out from under Niall.

“I mean, why not enjoy it? Canada can be fun, and we all have passports,” Niall said, then he froze and looked at Harry. “Harry definitely doesn’t have a passport.”

“He doesn’t? Then how the fuck did we get here?” Louis asked. “And how do we get back to America! We should be on our way to Mount Rushmore right now!”

“I don’t know. The border man was pretty chill. He asked if I was excited to see Canada, I said yes, and he let me through,” Zayn said.

“I love Canadians,” Niall sighed.

“Niall!” Louis yelled, but stopped when Zayn pulled up to a booth in the middle of the roadway, rolling down the window.

“Day pass or annual pass sir?” the woman asked.

“What's the difference?” Zayn asked, and Louis nearly punched him out right there.

“Annual lasts for the year, it’s $138, while the day pass is $19.95 and is good until the end of the day.”

“Oh we’ll definitely do the day one then,” Zayn said, easily handing the woman a twenty dollar bill. He took the little placard from her, hanging it from the rear view mirror before driving off, as if Louis wasn’t about to have a meltdown beside him.

The other two behind them slowly started to wake up as they drove through the national park, seemingly just as relaxed as the rest of them about that fact that they were in _fucking_ Canada. Louis was slowly banging his head on the passenger window, wondering how they were supposed to get out of this if Harry didn’t have a passport.

“Louis relax,” Niall finally said, shaking Louis’ shoulders as if that was going to shake him out of it. Liam had taken the wheel at some point, and apparently he had been distracted enough not to notice.

“Relax? Niall, we’re in Canada!”

“I know, and Banff is a cool place. We’ll swing by the hot springs, get you all relaxed, take in some views, drink some maple syrup, then Zayn will take us the same route we came in, and we’ll breeze by the border with no issue and be right back on track okay?”

Louis, still on the verge of a mental breakdown, looked over at Harry who was excitedly talking about some hike they could take later, and couldn’t help but just go along with it. He would do anything that made Harry happy. “Okay.”

*

The hot springs, as they called them, were nothing but a cesspool of germs and the least bit relaxing. They were hot obviously, but too hot for a summer day and Louis kept having to swish away brown chunks that were coming from the woman beside him, her fake tan not lasting in the water.

“This is... nice,” Harry said, sliding up beside him. It finally got Louis’ eyes away from the tan woman, but made him notice equally disgusting overly sweaty vacation dad. He needed out.

“It’s really not,” Louis said, watching Harry's face fall as he did.

“What’s got you in a mood?” Harry asked, swishing away more brown chunks. Louis looked between him and the chunks, trying as hard as he could to hold in an outburst. 

“Well, I woke up hungover, and in Canada, so that’ll do it I guess. Besides, you know,” he said, looking back down. Harry was still desperately trying to swish them away but more kept on coming, the woman seeming to barely notice.

The springs were overcrowded, barely any room for them to move away, and as it was the woman seemed only to get closer the more the crowd built up. Louis could feel sweaty vacation dad bumping up behind him. There was no escape.

“I know, but it’s fun right. This is what you wanted when you came on a road trip. Fun adventures?” Harry asked. It was what Louis truly loved about him; no matter what was happening, and no matter what the situation, he was always trying to look for the positive, something Louis wished he could do.

“Yeah, bu, shouldn’t you be mad? This is adding extra days for you and your whatever you want with the president.” It was like he wasn’t in control of what he was saying, the hot springs melting his brain and letting every horrible thing on his mind fall out. He didn’t want Harry to leave, but the sad reality was Louis couldn’t have him forever. And as much as he wanted more time with him, he didn’t want it stuck here, too hot and squished to do much but stand and feel disgusting.

Harry looked around, from Niall on some stranger’s shoulders trying to wrestle Liam, who was on Zayn’s. He looked at Louis again, with a small smile taking over his face. “I mean, maybe I don’t mind so much. I’m in good company.”

“Oh yeah, great company,” Louis teased. Sweaty vacation dad had now shifted, and was constantly bumping into Harry, almost pushing him over. That’s when he saw it, the glint in Harry’s eyes that he knew would only cause trouble, and before he could stop him, Harry was climbing up onto Vacation Dad’s shoulders, trying to take a hit at Niall even from the distance they were at.

Vacation dad obviously did not like this, and Louis didn’t blame him. Who would want a strange twenty something climbing on your shoulders without warning?

He moved around, trying to get Harry off of him, even as Harry held on for dear life. It only took moments for him to come crashing down, and in the close quarters of everyone in the pool he fell on top of Tan Woman, taking her down with him in a splash of little brown bubbles.

It was enough to get them kicked out immediately. 

“Why would you do that?” Liam asked, once they were walking in the parking lot.“That was so stupid!”

“I wasn't having fun,” Harry lied, with a small wink towards Louis. “But I guess now we just head back.”

“Yeah, one problem with that,” Zayn said, opening the back door to hop into the van. “I have no idea how to get us back.”

Louis froze, hand on the door handle as he looked over at Zayn, mouth falling open.

“You mean to tell me that you had no idea how to get us back, and instead of telling us right away you let us just fuck around for hours?”

“I thought that the hot water would be relaxing and that you would actually chill out for all of five seconds,” Zayn snapped back.

“I hate fucking all of you,” Louis said, slamming the door behind him as he got in the driver’s seat. The car was silent, all except the staticky voice coming through the radio.

*

“So which one of us doesn’t have a passport?” Harry asked once they were in line at the main border, unable to find whatever bullshit one Zayn had crossed the night before. It had been a long and silent ride back, not even the beautiful view of the mountains posing as a distraction from how nervous they were.

“Uh, you?” Niall questioned, looking between Zayn and Liam as he bit his lip. Both of them nodded.

“But I... have a passport...” Harry said. He struggled, but reached into his back pocket, almost magically pulling out a passport that definitely wasn't there a few seconds ago.

“Let me see that!” Niall yelled, ripping it out of his hand. Louis took it from him before investigating it.

“You’re all horrible, you know that? We could have actually enjoyed ourselves,” Louis said, sucking on the maple pop Harry gave him with a wink. “Now shut up and let's get back to America.”

👽

Mount Rushmore was a bit more underwhelming than Louis expected.

Standing there, he didn’t really get the big deal of it all. As a Brit, he maybe should have realized that this wasn’t that important to him. Either way, he could cross it off his bucket list.

“Niall, what is wrong with them?” Harry asked, voice almost hysterical. “Why are they trapped in the stone?”

“Harry, for the last time, they are not trapped,” Niall explained. “Someone carved their faces. It’s art.”

“It’s too realistic. I hate it,” Harry announced. Then, still confused, he asked, “And they can’t hear me if I yell at them?”

“No, so stop yelling at them,” Liam said, flicking him on the back of the head. “People are staring.”

“People are always staring at us,” Niall said, like that was supposed to make them feel better about it. Maybe Louis didn’t really care either way what people thought when they were in public. Harry didn’t care about social norms, so why should Louis?

“Are we going to Chicago next?” Zayn asked, leaning back against the railing next to Louis, his back facing the monument.

Harry overheard them, turning from the giant heads that he didn’t seem to like to butt into their conversation. “Can we go to Green Bay?”

“Green Bay?” Zayn furrowed his eyebrows. “Why would we go to Green Bay?”

“I like the Packers,” Harry said simply.

“Sure, we’ll go to Green Bay,” Louis agreed. “What else have we got to do?”

Nobody argued with him, standing there in a circle underneath the four heads of presidents none of them really cared about.

“Can we leave now?” Niall finally asked, darting his eyes up at the monument one last time.

“Yeah,” Louis agreed, sighing. “I’d say this stop has been a bust.”

👽

After all the trouble and fights of coming to Wisconsin, Louis figured the last thing he would be doing was a segway tour, but there they were, five grown men piled on segways following several other men on a “Packers heritage tour.” It was basically just riding segways along a trail that had signs explaining things about the Green Bay Packers. It was the stuff of dreams as Harry had explained to them that morning.

Niall flew by, almost sideswiping him as he still was getting used to the segway. He wasn’t the only one; Liam was way behind them from what Louis could see, spinning in circles as Zayn tried to help him.

The only one taking this seriously was Harry, who was taking the path as slow as a turtle, reading every sign and taking in every word of their tour guide, all while wearing a giant cheese on his head.

As good as he looked, face pinched in seriousness as he took in as much information as possible, Louis just couldn’t focus. Ever since Harry put that stupid cheese on his head, Louis’ mind kept drifting of what other strange thing he would look good in.

A cowboy hat, and boots, if they could find them. The image of Harry walking through the streets of Texas in full cowboy get up wouldn’t escape his mind.

His thoughts distracted him, causing a few accidents, though Louis blamed them on not being used to the segway. But it also caused Louis to realize how close he was to losing Harry. As much as Harry told him he enjoyed their company, he was still only there to get to one thing: Washington.

According to Louis’ original route, they would be heading down to Chicago the next day, followed by a drive up to Niagara falls, a pit stop in New York and finally end in Washington DC.

He still had many places on his trip after that, but they would be without Harry, and at this stage that seemed pointless.

Harry was quickly becoming one of Louis’ best friends, and possibly more if his cowboy imagery had anything to say about it. The thought of him gone sent Louis into a panic.

Panic that set in and followed him through all the day's activities. Wherever Harry dragged him, all Packers and cheese related, he couldn’t focus. He could only think of what it would be like when Harry was gone. When he was alone again.

He sat out of their last activity, much to Harry’s dismay, and sat in the van staring at the stupid map Zayn had found. Harry had never known his original route, he realized, and neither did any of the other boys. If instead of heading east after Chicago he drove south down towards Texas, they would all just think that was in his original plan.

It didn’t stop the guilt, when they all came back with Packers jerseys and cheese samples, a huge smile plastered on Harry's face asking where to next, and Louis lied to them, laying out his new plans over the map.

It would have to do though, because the guilt was better than loosing Harry so soon. 

👽

Louis was going to lose his mind.

“Seventy dollars?” he asked again, far past double-checking.

“If you ask again, I’m going to make it an even hundred,” the parking attendant said, uninterested. He held his hand out for the money.

“Seventy dollars to park,” Louis grumbled. “Fucking bullshit if I’ve ever heard it.”

He handed over the money anyway, cringing as he put his wallet away, and decided he hated Chicago already. The gate lifted in front of him and he drove into the garage, searching for the first available parking spot. He didn’t find one until the top level of the parking garage, and by that time Niall and Liam were in the backseat arguing about what they wanted to see first, while Zayn leaned forward to whisper something in Harry’s ear.

Louis put the van in park and jumped out, eager to stretch his legs. It hadn’t been their longest drive, but he was starting to hate the feeling of being in the car. He was excited for the chance to get around the city by bus and train today and not have to focus on looking out for other cars.

“Deep dish pizza,” Niall said when he climbed out of the van. Liam and Zayn piled out after him, like clowns from a clown car.

Louis cocked an eyebrow at him. “Elaborate?”

Harry came around the front of the van. Louis resisted the urge to reach out and wrap an arm around him and pull him close.

“What more do I need to elaborate?” Niall asked. “Deep dish pizza.”

“Deep dish pizza,” Louis repeated, nodding. Sometimes having a conversation with Niall felt like you were hearing every other word and he was speaking a language you took in high school for one year.

“Let’s get some,” Liam said. Louis didn’t miss the way he slipped his hand up the back of Zayn’s shirt. He would get to the bottom of that later. Or not. He didn’t really care either way.

“Deep dish pizza?” Louis asked again.

“Am I not speaking English here?” Niall asked, obviously frustrated.

“No, not really.” Louis shook his head. “You’ve got such a thick accent I barely understand you. Or maybe it’s just you. Or a combination of both.”

“Can we get deep dish pizza?” Niall enunciated every syllable, speaking so slowly it felt like Louis was listening to an Irish Harry.

“Fine, we can get deep dish pizza,” Louis agreed. “Anyone have anything else they want to do?”

The other three shook their heads, content to go along with whatever was planned for the day. Not that Louis really had any plans, but it seemed like Niall might.

They made their way to the sidewalk in search of the Chicago “L.” They passed a bus stop, but Niall insisted they needed to take the red line on the L. He spoke so authoritatively, Louis didn’t bother arguing with him. He knew what he was talking about. He spared a brief thought that he should probably mark down their location so they could find their way back to the car, but it slipped his mind when Harry slipped his hand into Louis’.

Finally, they reached a station that could connect them to the red line, and Niall cheered. They waited for their train, quiet as they observed the crowd around them. It wasn’t as dirty as Louis had imagined it to be, and the people were nicer than he expected. When he pictured America and the people in the subway stations, he always imagined yelling and pushing. These people were calm and minding their own business.

Their train arrived and Niall rushed to jump on, claiming them a spot near the back of the car. Louis gripped tightly to Harry’s hand, afraid of losing him in the gentle flow of the crowd. Once aboard, they huddled closely to keep out of the way of everyone and Niall let everyone in on his plans for the day.

“There’s these two deep dish places that everyone always recommends,” he explained. “But it’s always one or the other. So today we’re going to try them both and decide for ourselves.”

“So all we’re eating today is pizza?” Zayn asked, scrunching up his nose. “Can we stop for coffee?”

“Do you really want to have coffee either before or after you have pizza? I don’t think that’s a pairing I ever want to try,” Louis said, wincing as he thought about the combination of tastes.

“If you want me to put up with all of you today, then you will get me coffee,” Zayn said, leaving no room for argument.

It felt like they had been on the train for hours, but was realistically probably only fifteen minutes, before Niall pushed them to exit. Louis was thankful, as the car was getting more crowded the longer they rode, and the last thing he wanted was to be squashed in a subway car in the middle of summertime. He could feel the sweat dripping down his back and into his pants.

Niall led the way up the stairs and back out onto the busy Chicago sidewalk, not even flinching as he was bumped into from all angles. People didn’t say anything, but they did give him dirty looks, and Louis wished he would just start moving already.

His prayers were answered when Niall finally seemed to realize where he was, pointing them in one direction and leading them off in search of their first deep dish pizza.

Harry stayed next to him as they brought up the back of the pack, and Louis bumped their shoulders together.

“Excited for deep dish?” Louis asked.

“I don’t think I’ve had it,” Harry admitted. “Is it good?”

Louis shrugged. “I’ve never had it. It seems like it’s going to be messy though. Maybe you shouldn’t have worn a white shirt.”

“Oops?” Harry giggled and pulled at the hem of his t-shirt. “We can just stop somewhere and I can buy some new shirts.”

“A proper tourist, aren’t you?” Louis teased. He bumped their shoulders together again, admiring the way Harry’s dimple deepened.

“What’s the fun in traveling if you aren’t going to do it the right way?”

“You’re absolutely correct,” he agreed. “I think we’ve been doing a pretty good job of it.”

Harry slowed down, smile softening around the edges as he locked eyes with Louis. He blinked gently. “I think as long as we stick together, there’s no real way to do this wrong.”

“Curly, you’re going to make me cry,” Louis said playfully, but it was true. If he didn’t play this off as a joke, he was really going to start crying. He had a hard enough time as it was keeping things casual with Harry, and then he went and said things like that.

It wasn’t too long of a walk from the station to their first pizza stop of the day. Niall led the way inside, Liam and Zayn close behind, while Harry and Louis brought in the back of the group. The place was small, and Louis probably wouldn’t have noticed it if he’d been on his own. There was nothing too special about its appearance, but every table was full and there were people waiting along the walls.

Niall walke the host stand, conversing quietly with her for a moment before he motioned for the rest of the group to join him.

“Right this way, Mr. Horan,” the host said, grabbing a handful of menus and leading them to an open table Louis hadn’t noticed before. She cleared off a ‘reserved’ sign from the center of it and placed the menus in front of each of them after they sat down.

“How did we just get a table?” Louis asked, almost afraid of the answer.

“I called last night,” Niall explained. “I told them I was someone famous but I was using an alias.”

“And that worked?” Liam asked, face tightening in confusion.

“Not at all. They said they had an open reservation for this time slot.”

Harry honked out a laugh, not even bothering to cover his mouth with his hand when people turned to stare at him. Louis liked that about him - the unapologetic way he was just _himself_.

Harry continued to beam, even as the server came over to take their drink orders. Louis had to make himself look away, afraid he would go blind from staring too long.

They agreed to order the house speciality pizza to split, and Liam and Niall put their heads together to figure out the best way to grade the two pizzas they were going to try. Zayn and Harry fell into a quiet conversation, and Louis sat back and wondered how he got here.

Never in a million years, upon starting this journey, did he think he would be sitting at a table with four almost strangers, arguing over the best scale to rate sauce consistency. There was no potential scenario he had run through his mind that could have predicted this moment and most of the moments that led to it.

He loved it.

He joined in on the debate for how to grade the pizza, finally settling on a five point scale based on sauce consistency, sauce taste, crust thickness and taste, and overall flavor.

The pizza, as was expected, was amazing. Louis found it hard to eat and stay clean, but he tried. Harry, on the other hand, didn’t seem to care, diving in tongue first (like a _weirdo_ ), not caring about the sauce on his face and the toppings spilling all over his plate.

In the end, they all individually voted on the pizza and came to the collective score of 4.4/5, weighed down by the low score Liam gave the taste of the sauce.

Wrinkling his nose, he defended his score, “I just thought it tasted funny.”

“It’s called flavor,” Zayn teased him with a snort, rubbing a hand along his back.

Niall apparently didn’t have any other plans for their day besides another reservation at the second pizza place at five, so he told Louis to lead the way. Louis didn’t really have any plans either, but he overheard a few conversations about a baseball game happening in an hour at Wrigley Field.

“Do you guys like baseball?” he asked.

Harry seemed excited about the prospect, but the other three didn’t seem too enthusiastic. Regardless, they agreed to buy online tickets and start making their way to the field. They weren’t too far away, and it was a quick ride on the train to the area.

A nice man on the train noticed they seemed out of place, in their touristy clothes from places that weren’t Chicago, surrounded by fans decked out in blue apparel. He revealed to them that he worked at one of the concession stands at the park, and if they stopped by, he’d be willing to slip them some free pizza.

Louis groaned internally at the idea of _more_ pizza, but smiled and thanked the man nonetheless. He also told them where they could find cheap Cubs gear so they wouldn’t stick out too much in the crowd.

Louis grabbed onto Harry’s hand when the train rolled to a stop, afraid of losing him in the crowd. Families and fans pushed past them, eager to get to the ballpark before the game started.

“Do you want to go get some Cubs gear?” Louis whispered in his ear, ignoring the way Harry shivered.

“Cubs gear?” he asked, head tilted.

Louis pulled them off to the side, just a few steps away from the stall that the man had recommended. “You know, we’re seeing the Cubs play and we want to wear shirts to represent them. Like, cheer them on.”

“Oh.” Confusion was still written all over Harry’s face, but Louis wasn’t sure how else he could explain it. “Cubs like bears?”

“Sort of.” Louis scratched at his head with his free hand. “There is a team called the Chicago Bears, but that’s not these guys. They’re two separate teams.”

“I don’t understand why we’re going to watch baby animals play baseball, but.” Harry shrugged, like he wasn’t too concerned about it.

“No, Harry, that’s not-”

It didn’t matter anyway because Harry had stopped listening to him, chatting away to the woman at the register. He somehow had already scooped up a handful of t-shirts and hats, more than he could possibly wear at one time, and was handing over the money to her. Louis didn’t even notice him picking things up while they talked, that sneaky bastard.

“I got these for you,” Harry said, handing over one of the t-shirts and a baseball hat. The cubs logo was right in the center of each of them, otherwise the t-shirt was a solid blue all over and the cap was white with a blue brim.

“Thanks, Harry,” Louis said, taking the items. He scanned the area for a bathroom so they could change into their new items. “Have you seen any of the others?”

Harry shook his head. “Not since we got off the train.”

Louis pursed his lips, but wasn’t really that concerned. Their seats were right next to each other, so if they hadn’t appaeared by the first inning, then he could start to worry. As it was, he was more concerned with pulling Harry into the nearest bathroom before he changed his shirt in the middle of the sidewalk.

Adorned in their matching t-shirts and hats, they made their way to their seats. Louis, Niall, and Zayn still weren’t there, but Louis refused to worry. They were big kids; they could take care of themselves.

The game started, and Louis was finally starting to get worried. He found that he couldn’t even enjoy the game, too worried about the trouble that the trio probably had gotten into.

Finally, at the end of the first inning, Zayn and Liam appeared, plopping into their seats with matching mischievous smirks across their faces.

“What did you do?” Louis asked, side-eyeing them as he continued to watch the game. “And where’s Niall?”

“We made friends,” Liam answered.

“Nobody else can fit in the fucking van,” Louis asserted. “Not happening.”

“Not those kinds of friends.”

“Then what kind of friends?” he asked.

“Niall’s the mascot now,” Zayn said, deciding that Liam was taking too long to answer. “His name’s Clark and Niall is in his suit. See?” He pointed at the bear mascot running along the sidelines as the players switched out positions.

“Why?” Louis was more confused than anything else.

“Niall’s the bear?” Harry asked, talking over Louis. “When did Niall become the bear?”

“He’s not an actual bear,” Zayn explained patiently. “He’s just in the costume. He’s going to be keeping morale up during the game.”

“Oh.” Harry seemed to accept this answer.

Louis, however, did not.

“And why is he the mascot?” he asked again, louder this time.

“Because we made friends.”

“And what does that have to do with this situation?”

Zayn sighed, rolling his eyes theatrically. “Because the friends we made work for the Cubs. And they liked Niall’s energy and thought he was funny, so they told him he could be the mascot for the day.”

“Okay.” Louis decided he didn’t want to ask anymore questions. As long as they weren’t trying to bring more people along with them for the trip, he wouldn’t question why Niall was down on the field doing the chicken dance.

The game ended just a little after four, and the Cubs won by one run in the very last inning. They waited just outside the gates of the field for Niall. He had apparently told Zayn and Liam that he would meet them right in this spot, and Louis had to trust them.

Maybe ten minutes later, Niall came strolling up, beaming and pink-cheeked.

“Did you see me?” he all but yelled, jumping into Harry’s arms. Harry caught him easily, spinning them around once before letting Niall back on to the ground.

“Yeah, it was sick,” Zayn said enthusiastically, giving him a high-five. “You can cross that one off your bucket list.”

“I didn’t even _know_ it was on my bucket list until today,” Niall continued on, voice breathless as he stared in wonder at the field behind them. He turned around and started walking off abruptly, leaving the rest of them scrambling to catch up.

“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” Louis asked, falling into stride with him.

“We’ve got pizza to eat,” he explained. “It’s actually just down a few blocks, so we can walk there.”

“Oh, cool.” Louis fell back, letting him take the lead. He waited until Harry caught up, easily grabbing onto his hand and entangling their fingers. Quietly, just so that only he could hear, Louis asked, “Having fun?”

Harry nodded eagerly. “This has been one of my favorite places.”

“Just wait until we get to Disney World,” Louis laughed. “You’re going to love it the best.”

“I want Mickey ears,” Harry announced. “And a Mickey sweater.”

“We can do that,” Louis agreed easily. “Anything for you.”

Harry squeezed his hand tighter, smiling down at the ground. Louis watched to make sure he wouldn’t run into anything, but otherwise didn’t say anything.

This pizza place was similar to the first one in that it was small and crowded, especially since the game just let out, but they were led to a table right away. They agreed to order the house speciality pizza here as well, sticking to their previous rating scale.

Louis opted for a beer when their server came around to take their order, and when it was placed down in front of him, Harry eyed it suspiciously.

“What?” Louis asked, reaching over to take a sip.

“That’s just as bad as the demon water,” he explained, squinting his eyes even further.

Louis snorted, trying to keep from spraying the beer everywhere. Once he was sure he wasn’t going to choke, he asked, “What?”

“Beer made me sick. I remember,” he said, but he widened his eyes and wasn’t glaring at Louis’ glass anymore, so he figured it was okay.

They were all tired from their day, despite not really _doing_ much, and conversation was quiet at the table. Liam decided the sauce on this pizza tasted much better and the average came out to be 4.6/5, officially declaring it the winner.

Niall sat back in his chair, patting his stomach and sighing contently.

“I’d consider this a successful day,” he said.

Everyone hummed their agreement, quiet as the food settled into their stomach.

“Does anyone remember where we parked the car?” Louis asked, drowsiness no longer making itself home in his eyes.

After a bit of panicking from the group, Niall came to their rescue. He remembered the lines they had taken to get to Wrigley Field and the pizza place from earlier. From there, they could make their way backwards to the street where they started, at the very least.

Once back in the car, Louis settled his hands on the steering wheel and waited until everyone was buckled in. “Ready to go?” He had penciled in a quick stop to Kansas City, unsure of what there was to do there, but thought it might be somewhere to buy him some more time.

👽

It was dark by the time they left Kansas City . Louis looked in his rear view mirror, seeing the three boys fast asleep. Zayn had his head against the window, Liam, with his head against Zayn and Niall curled up on the single seat.Thing is, Louis still felt guilty about taking the long way around. They should have been headed towards New York right now, staying there for a short while before heading to Harry’s final destination: Washington D.C.

Louis looked over at the passenger seat. Harry smiled at him, still holding that stupid map of his. Louis couldn't have given him up yet. And Harry didn't seem to mind really. He never did know the original route anyway so why did Louis feel so guilty?

He drove down the near empty highway headed towards Oklahoma City where they could get a motel for the night. Really, he should just get a bigger campervan so they didn’t have to keep renting motels or staying in tents. But he loved his little VW, and so did Harry.

“Lou?” Harry whispered, startling him out of his thoughts. Louis looked over for a moment to see Harry staring intently at the backseat.

“Yeah?” Louis asked, turning his eyes back to the road. “Are you getting tired? I don’t mind you sleeping too.”

“No, couldn’t just leave you alone.” Harry smiled, reaching to place a hand on Louis’ thigh. Louis immediately looked down at the contact and coughed awkwardly.

“I mean you’ll be doing that when we reach Washington,” Louis said. He moved to fiddle with the radio turning down whatever music Harry had on.

Harry bit his lip and shook his head. “I don’t want to think about that now,” he whispered.

So maybe Louis wasn’t the only one not ready to let go. “So what did you want to talk about then?” he asked. Harry still had his hand on his thigh, making it hard to concentrate.

“I just,” Harry said, then sighed and looked back at Zayn and Liam. “I love the boys, I really do. But I kinda miss when it was just us. Us versus the world you know?” he whispered. It was so quiet Louis wouldn’t have heard it if they weren't sitting so close together. He wanted to thank whatever man decided to put bench seating in this van.

“I know, but it’s been fun with them hasn’t it? I mean we can’t just leave them on the side of the road.” Louis laughed lightly. He got where Harry was coming from though. He had wished the same thing sometimes. Well, he wished a lot of things.

“I wouldn’t want to leave them. For them to leave,” Harry said, knitting his brows together. For someone whose first language was supposed to be English he really did have trouble putting his sentences together sometimes. Louis found it cute. 

Harry pulled his hand off Louis’ thigh, leaving a cold spot, and fully turned to face Louis. He mumbled something unintelligible.

“What was that?” Louis asked. He could hear Niall’s snores coming from behind them and gave a quick check in his mirror that they were all still asleep.

“It’s just they’ve stopped me from kissing you so many times,” Harry said, louder this time out of frustration. Louis turned to look at him with wide eyes. They were already so close and he could-

_Kiss him._

Before he had time to process the thought, Harry’s lips were on his, gentle and sweet. Louis moved one hand to tangle in his hair and pull him closer.

He yanked away from him when he heard a loud honk _and fuck_ he was supposed to be driving and not kissing this beautiful boy beside him. He swerved back to his lane of the road and turned to let his eyes catch Harry’s quickly. Both of them burst into a fit of giggles that felt all too loud on that quiet night.

“You can’t say it was the boys this time,” Louis whispered once they had calmed down. Harry was still turned to face him fully, Louis looking his way every few seconds while still trying to pay attention to the road.

“No, I guess I can’t,” Harry said biting his lip. “Maybe it’s just not meant to be.” He looked thoughtful.

“Maybe you just have your timing off, Styles. I mean, driving on the highway in the middle of the night? Maybe not the time.”

“Then when is the time?” Harry frowned.

“Right now when I pull over and the boys are sleeping,” Louis said as he pulled into a rest stop on the side of the highway. It was mostly empty, sans a few cars pulled over with passengers sleeping for the night. Louis turned the ignition off and turned to face Harry. He smiled at him tucking a curl behind his ear. “So what’s this business about kissing me then?”

“I kind of just did.” Harry smiled leaning closer to Louis. They were so close now their knees were touching.

“That you did... and almost got us killed,” Louis laughed. He stopped when he realized Harry wasn’t laughing with him.

“I really like you, Lou. More than, more than just a friend I think.”

“I think I got that from the kissing,” Louis said, smiling back at him. He leaned in and kissed him again. Just a light peck. Just because he could.

“I like you more than a friend too. If you couldn’t tell,” he added, lips brushing lightly against Harry’s.

They were interrupted again by a loud snore from Niall, causing them to pull apart and start giggling again.

“See what I mean?” Harry asked, rolling his eyes. “Always interrupting,” he grumbled. He turned in his seat and was about to flick Niall in the head when Louis stopped him. He leaned over and pulled the small curtain that blocked the front from the back. The same raggedy old thing that blocked the windows.

“There! Privacy,” Louis whispered. Niall snores could still be heard through the curtain.

“You sure?” Harry asked as another loud one rang through.

“Well. As much as we’re going to get. Guess we’ll just have to get used to it,” Louis said as he turned the car on again. It was starting to get cool out so he turned the heat on before he pulled out.

“Get used to it?” Harry asked sleepily.

“Well, yeah. If this kissing thing is going to continue I’m not waiting for them to bugger off. They’ll just have to get used to it too,” Louis said as he wrapped an arm around Harry to pull him closer. Harry leaned against him resting his head on Louis’ shoulder as he drove.

“I think I like that idea.” Harry smiled. “But maybe no more highway kissing. Don’t want to almost die again. I didn’t like that.”

“Yeah. I didn’t like that either,” Louis laughed. “But I do like this,” he said tightening his arm around Harry.

“This?” Harry asked looking up at him.

“Yeah, us.” Louis smiled. He was about to make the mistake of leaning down to kiss him again when the curtain was shoved open.

“Would you two stop being sappy shits? You know I get road sick and I already have to deal with these fuckers,” Niall said pointing back to Zayn and Liam all cuddled up in the back. “I don’t want to deal with it with you too!” he said.

This time Louis didn’t stop Harry when he moved to flick Niall in the head. “Go to sleep you wanker!” he said, slamming the curtain shut.

It got quiet for a moment before Niall peaked his head back through the curtains. “Love you.”

“Love you too! Now go back to sleep and leave me and my boyfriend alone!” Louis said, trying to use his hand to push Niall’s head back behind the curtains.

“Boyfriend?” Niall and Harry said at the same time.

“Well that’s kinda what I thought you meant when you said more than kissing?” Louis asked, putting both hands on the wheel.

“I thought he just meant sex,” Niall pointed out.

“ _Niall!”_ Louis yelled, causing Niall to finally go back to his seat in the back. Harry was right, they should leave them. Just dump those stupid idiots on the side of the road never to see them again and-

“I’d like that. Being your boyfriend, I mean,” Harry said, leaning over to kiss his cheek. He leaned against Louis again, resting his head on Louis’ shoulder, not saying another word as he watched the road pass.

Later that night, when the sun started to rise and his eyes could barely stay open, Louis had no feelings of guilt. No, all he could think about was the sleeping boy in his arms wearing a cowboy hat and boots, dancing to some stupid country song and all the other adventures they had to come.

*

The decision between keeping the Volkswagen or renting an actual RV was taken from Louis that afternoon. Harry had wanted to stop in some garden thing he had found in a pamphlet at the gas station and everyone had agreed, wanting to take a break from the van. Unfortunately some total _jackass_ had hit them when they were turning out.

Louis was panicking, the boys were fighting with the driver and Harry, well Harry had wandered off to some free yoga class they were holding in the park. Louis could see him from where he was standing, stretched out in one of the various positions with the other little old ladies and giggling along as none of them could hold the pose.

Louis wandered over to him, having had enough with the fighting. It was a write off, they all knew it. So why were they fighting? Call a tow truck, get a hotel, and be done with it. Harry smiled at him when he sat down on his mat in front of him.

“What’s got you so grumpy? Grumpy pants,” Harry joked. He turned away from him, following the new pose of the instructor but looked at him upside down, still smiling. Louis was so in love.

“Well you know our van just got wrecked and we have nowhere to sleep,” Louis said, rolling his eyes. He fell back so he was laying on the grass and let out a sigh of frustration. “Cause nothing can go right ever.”

“Oh, I already dealt with that. Gladys is selling us her RV in trade for the van,” Harry said easily. He opened his legs slightly looking at Louis from the downward dog position. If Louis wasn’t in such shock he would be thinking other things right now. Things that shouldn’t be thought in a park filled with old women.

“But it’s totalled! Completely undriveable!” he yelled. Harry shrugged, somehow still in position. The woman beside them smiled.

“Just gives my husband something to work on; drives me nuts him being in the house all the time now,” she said. She was sitting in a chair while doing the poses best she could, but mostly just talking to the people around her. “We can’t use the RV anymore anyway, these old bones can’t handle the road anymore. Not the spring chickens we used to be,” she joked.

“Oh Gladys! We’re humans, not chickens!” Harry laughed, causing the rest of the women around him to laugh along.

“Harry, you’re such a hoot! I wish you’d stay here longer,” the woman on the other side of him said. Her name tag said Cynthia.

“Cyn, don’t you worry! Gladys’ son needs to come with the tow truck to take the van! We’ll definitely have time for tea in the garden after this!” he said easily. The women around him confirmed, trying to figure out how big of a table they would need to reserve.

Of course Harry had charmed the pants off this group of older women. He did it with everyone. It’s how Louis ended up with a van full of boys, and it’s how Louis ended up with a Harry.

He shook his head. “I’ll leave you to it then. Should fill the boys in anyway. Think they’re still fighting with the driver,” he said. Harry gave him a thumbs up from the tree pose and Louis was off.

“For the last fucking time!” Zayn yelled. “You hit us! I don’t give a fuck about any other bullshit excuse when-”

“You shouldn’t have fucking pulled out!” the man yelled.

Louis put a hand on Zayn’s shoulder. “Just stop. Harry’s already taken care of it.”

“What?” Zayn frowned, spinning around to face Louis. Louis pointed at Harry who was now walking back to the gardens with all the older ladies practically wrapped around him. “Oh my fucking god,” Zayn said, causing the others to turn and look as well.

“How did he... What did he do?” Niall asked. All of them watched in shock, even the other driver.

“Something about Gladys giving us her RV for the van... cause her husband... and her son and the tow truck...” Louis mumbled out, all eyes still on Harry.

“Oh you know Gladys? I’m so sorry for the trouble! Here, just take my name and insurance and we’ll settle up later,” the man said easily. He went to his car, getting all his information reading it all off to Liam.

“What the fuck,” Zayn whispered. “I’ve been fighting with that guy for the last half hour.” He shook his head. He looked to Liam and Niall. “It’s got to be some of his powers or something. No one should be able to convince people like that.”

“Yeah, there's no way,” Liam mumbled, looking over to Harry sitting in the garden with all the women. “Who would even just give away an RV?”

“I know. I can’t believe how charming he is.” Louis smiled, watching him. Niall rolled his eyes, putting his arm around Louis’ shoulders.

“Yeah. We’ll call it charming,” he said, leading him over to their now destroyed van. Thankfully it was only their motor that was hit, so all their things were still safe in the back. “But we best get packing if Gladys’ husband is coming with the RV soon.”

Louis nodded in agreement and started packing his and Harry's things. He was going to miss his little van, but he knew it was for the better. He was excited for him and Harry to have their own bed again. At least he hoped they did. Who knew what their new RV looked like?

He tore down his Union Jack banners and put the pillows in a spare bag he found in the back. He was just finishing up grabbing Harry's box of trinkets when a man strolled up.

“Are you Harry?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. He was a big burly man, not much older than Louis himself but almost a foot taller than him.

“Ugh no. That's my boyfriend,” Louis said then he smiled to himself. That was the first time he got to use that since last night. It felt good.

“Oh perfect,” the man said, suddenly smiling. He reached out and shook Louis’ hand. “I’m Derek! Nice to meet ya!”

Harry and Gladys came up a few moments later, laughing at some joke Louis must have missed. “Oh, Louis! Good, you’ve met Derek!” Gladys smiled.

“Yes ma’am, and you must be the Harry my mother gushed about,” Derek said, shaking Harry’s hand. Harry shook it just as excitedly as Derek did. Louis coughed when it lasted a bit too long for his liking and put his arm around Harry. Wow, not even 24 hours and he was already jealous. But really, with Harry as charming as he was, how could he not be?

“Should we load this puppy up?” Derek asked, pointing back at Louis’ poor van. “Dad should be here right away with the trailer.”

“We don’t have a puppy, but you can load our van up.” Harry smiled. Louis and Gladys started laughing but Derek just looked confused. “Let me just say goodbye to her first,” Harry said. He pulled Louis up to the van with him and sighed, “Goodbye Margret. You’ve been a wonderful ship for us, and I'm leaving you in very good hands,” he said, hugging the van. Louis swore he saw him kiss it but didn’t mention it.

“Yes thank you, Margret, you’ve been great for us,” Louis said, patting the van a few times. He was about to say a few more things, to appease Harry really, when he heard Liam and Zayn screaming from across the parking lot.

“What’s this about now?” he asked, turning toward them. His jaw dropped when he saw it. When Harry told him that they were trading, he expected some shitty campervan, or maybe even a tent trailer. Not this, this-

“This here is a Class C motorhome!” the man said, jumping out of the driver side door. He walked across the small parking lot towards them and smiled. “You must be Harry,” he said shaking Harry's hand. “And this must be my new van! Gladys! Just like when we were kids!” He walked up to the van.

“Her name’s Margret,” Harry said, walking up beside the man who Louis assumed to be Gladys’ husband.

“Well, let’s get you set up so we can all get going then.” He led Harry to the RV and the others just followed in awe.

“So, front two doors just lead to the front seats, trailer door leads to everything else. But you can get to the front seats from inside the trailer,” he said, opening the door. “One double bed over the front seats, one in the back. Kitchen lines one wall and the table lines the other. You can fold that down to a single bed as well.”

Louis walked in, looking around in amazement. This was completely unbelievable considering an hour ago all they had was a busted up campervan.

The man explained how to pull out the awning and bathroom. There was a bathroom?!

“This isn’t a fair trade,” Louis said, shaking his head. He looked at Gladys and her husband. Gladys wrapped an arm around her husband and smiled.

“Trust me, we met in a van like this in the 60s. Been looking for one ever since. This is the best thing that could have happened,” she said. “Now Derek, help them get their stuff in. It’s getting late and these fellas probably want to get on the road!”

“Thank you, Gladys. Really,” Louis pulled her in tight for a hug.

“It’s no trouble. Now you take care of that Harry, he’s really something special,” she said, patting his back as she returned his hug.

“Trust me, I know,” Louis whispered, watching Harry hang their banner in the front window of the RV over her shoulder.

“Some kind of special, that kid is kinda weird,” Derek said to Niall as they loaded the last of the boxes in the RV.

“Yeah because he's an alien,” Niall said, shutting the door behind him once the last of the boxes was in.

“What?” Derek asked from outside the trailer.

Louis got in the driver's seat starting the car as Harry hugged Gladys and her husband.

“You know, the kind from outer space,” Liam said through the open window along the side of the trailer as he started putting kitchen supplies away.

“ _What?_ ” Derek choked out as Harry got in the passenger seat. He opened the window waving as Louis started to drive away.

“Bye Gladys! I’ll call you soon! Thanks for giving us your ship!” Harry yelled, blowing her a kiss.

Gladys just laughed at his antics. Derek looked like he was going to pass out.

👽

They had been driving for about an hour, Louis’ knuckles white as he gripped the steering wheel, his eyes burning as he watched the road fly by. Harry had given up on him about half an hour ago, barely able to keep his eyes open as he climbed into the cozy bed above them. Louis didn’t blame him. Harry had been up with him half the night and they still hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. It didn’t help that this highway was boring as hell. Flat land and grass as far as the eye could see.

Zayn slid into the white leather of the new seat beside him, hissing slightly at the heat of it. They still hadn’t figured the AC in this stupid thing and leather could be a bitch in the southern heat. “I can drive if you’re tired.”

“Yeah fucking right,” Louis laughed quietly, as not to wake Harry. His eyes slid from the road quickly to give Zayn a look. Zayn all but rolled his eyes at him.

“And why not?”

“Well, let’s see,” Louis said, relaxing slightly. He let one hand fall off the steering wheel, the other now only holding it loosely. “The first time I let you drive, you made a wrong turn and we ended up in fucking _Canada._ ”

“That was a riot,” Niall laughed as he plopped down on the floor between them. Louis missed his bench seating.

“And the second time you destroyed my vintage van,” Louis sighed. Zayn’s face pinched up slightly, he sucked his lips in and looked at the ground.

“I said I was sorry,” he mumbled, not making eye contact.

Niall coughed awkwardly. “So where are we going anyway?” he asked, hesitation in his voice. Louis had been tense as hell since Harry went to sleep. They knew no one but the boy in question could solve it. That, and maybe a good night's sleep.

“Well, were going to find a campground near Dallas and sleep off this weird day,” Louis mumbled. His blinks were becoming longer the more exhausted he got.

“Alright, enough. Lou move, I’m driving. Zayn, navigate please,” Liam said walking up behind Niall. Louis looked like he was actually going to just get up from the seat as he was driving for a second, but a moment later he was pulling off the road and parking.

He was too tired to climb up to Harry, instead sliding into the long seat of the kitchen table, eyes closing before he was even fully on the thing.

The RV was silent after that, sans the few directions Zayn gave Liam, and the occasional snore coming from Harry. It was interrupted by Zayn’s loud growling stomach.

“So… Food?” Niall chuckled. He yanked the phone from Zayn's hand, already looking up the closest restaurants.

“We’re about to pass the state line. We could probably get some, um, what food is popular in Texas? All I know is it’s big,” Liam said, trying to read some of the signs along the highway.

“Sweet tea?” Zayn asked. “I don’t really know what else is in Texas. Why are we going to Texas again?”

“I wanted to see Harry in a cowboy hat and boots,” Louis mumbled, mostly asleep from where he was now half hanging off their kitchen seat. “Would be so fucking hot.” He smiled to himself.

Niall groaned, falling back so he was laying under the table, face directly under Louis’. “I hate you, you know.”

“Love you too, Niall,” Louis mumbled as he rolled back onto the seat fully. Niall didn’t seem to have the energy to move, deciding to just stay under the table.

“We could always just grab Starbucks; Harry’s still sleeping so he won’t kill us, and I’ve really had a craving for a frappe,” Liam said.

“Really been craving that cream, Liam? Lou has too apparently,” Zayn teased.

Harry suddenly sprang down, half his body hanging from the bed as he pointed out the front window. “State line! Everyone out for a picture!” he yelled.

“And if you even mention that demon shop again, Liam, I’ll send my space fleet to kill you,” Harry whispered. He was super close to Liam’s ear from where he was hanging down, causing the other boy to shiver. 

Liam paled but slowly turned off the road so they could take a photo with the sign. “Drive friendly - the Texas way. Hmm, I like that,” Harry said as he hopped down from the bed.

Louis laughed at him as he slowly pulled himself from his lying position. He was dead tired but would never deny Harry anything. He blindly followed as Harry grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the trailer.

Niall grabbed the camera as he followed behind them, still rubbing his head. He would never let anyone take the picture of them, always complaining they couldn’t beat the selfie king.

They all piled under the sign and Niall held out the phone. “Say cheese.” Harry smiled, then he laughed, thinking about Wisconsin, falling slightly. He grabbed Louis, who was beaming drowsily at the camera.

“Selfie king gets it again!” Niall smiled, looking down at his phone.

Louis peeked over his shoulder and copied his smile. “That's amazing! Send it to me, I want to post that.”

They finally all agreed to just grab McDonald’s and eat on the road, wanting to get to the campground faster and get a good night's sleep. Niall took over the driving when Liam attempted to get them through the drive-thru, almost causing them to knock down one of the signs and take out some grass along with it. He had complained about it, but stopped when Zayn pulled him onto his lap and fed him french fries.

Louis and Harry had retreated to the top bunk once they got their food. Harry had somehow already made it cozy up there for them, Louis’ Union Jack banners lining the wall with some polaroids Harry had taken, and his big fluffy white duvet covering the bed with pillows sprawled all over. They were giggling at each other, overtired and trying to feed each other little bits of chicken nuggets without spilling sauce everywhere.

“I hate this,” Niall groaned as he turned the knob of the radio up to tune out all the _sap_ around him. “Alien boy get down here and help me find a good campsite.”

“Stop calling my boyfriend an alien,” Louis huffed, rolling his eyes. He pulled Harry into his arms, causing Harry to squawk then relax into his lap. He could feel Harry’s curls tickling his chin as he leaned forward, pressing his lips to Harry’s temple.

“Yeah! I’m not an alien! I’m a human being! And if you can’t accept that we’re not friends,” Harry yelled down. Louis nodded along to Harry’s antics. What he thought were antics, anyway.

“I guess we’re not friends then,” Niall mumbled. He barely dodged the shoe thrown at him from the top bunk. Stupid alien super hearing. He pulled them off the highway onto a very bumpy dirt road, and laughed when he heard Harry bump his head on the ceiling above him.

“Ow!” Harry frowned, moving a hand up to rub his head gently. Louis moved them so they were now laying down, unable to get hurt again while the RV was being thrown around. “Let’s just sleep human boy. They can find a campsite without us.”

“Okay,” Harry hummed. He tossed their empty McDonald’s bag onto the floor for someone else to deal with as he got comfy in the tight space of their new bed.

“Why did we get stuck up here anyway?” Louis asked as he wrapped his arm around Harry, pulling him to his chest. Harry had moved their curtain so he could look out the front window as the RV flew down the dirt road. He turned his head to look at Louis over his shoulder and smiled.

“I like it; it’s cozy like the van. Plus we get a curtain for privacy and all that,” he said. Louis nodded, unable to focus on anything but his lips moving. He reached his arm over and dragged the curtain closed, giving them a semblance of privacy. He leaned forward and connected their lips.

Suddenly, their noses were knocked together then Louis was thrown away from Harry, his head banging the side of the wall. Niall cackled from where he was whipping the steering wheel around, causing the car to wiggle around the deserted dirt road.

“Not today, fuckers!” Niall yelled up to them, having somehow realized Louis’ intentions without even seeing them. Harry ignored both of them, and chose to focus his eyes on the road passing by. The sun was now almost fully set, the stars appearing in the dark sky. Louis assumed they were about half an hour outside of Dallas, and based on the lack of light pollution they didn’t seem close to any other small towns.

“Should we just get something around here? Google says there are a ton of campsites in this area,” Zayn asked. He now had a sleeping Liam in his arms, rubbing his arm lightly to keep him comfortable.

“Wait.” Louis frowned. “Are you saying Niall just turned down this road to be awful? Not because he found somewhere to stay down here?”

“Yup, I’m a shit.” Niall smiled, wiggling the steering wheel to throw Louis around again. Zayn, luckily able to see what Niall was doing, tightened his grip around Liam so he wouldn’t go flying.

Louis shifted but was able to catch himself with his hand before he hit his head on the wall again. He groaned and fell back into the fluffy duvet when Niall finally relaxed with the wheel. He hadn’t noticed, but Harry had found an RV park and was directing Niall through the tiny top bunk window and the map on his phone.

“What’s this button do?” Harry mumbled, showing Louis. Louis shrugged, watching as Harry pressed it. The sound of Siri that had previously been coming out of Harry’s phone quietly was now blaring through the loud speakers of their RV, cutting out whatever shit Niall had on the radio.

“Oh,” Harry said quietly, and he was quickly blasting Fleetwood Mac through the speakers, the first notes of _Landslide_ filling the van.

They pulled into the RV park soon after that, and though it wasn’t what Louis had expected from Texas, it was definitely beautiful. And hot.

The campsite was surrounded by trees that broke open to a small path leading to the lake. Without hesitation, once they were parked, all the boys started walking towards the lake, stripping down as they went.

It was hot outside, and extremely humid, the sweat on Louis’ body washing away as the cold water hit. He dove under, shaking his hair out when he finally came up for air.

Harry was beside him in an instant, smiling from ear to ear. “It’s fresh water.”

“Well yeah, we’re not on the coast anymore,” Louis chucked. Niall swam past them, pushing Harry under the water.

“This feels amazing!” Harry said as he came up. It was late enough that the sun was still up but there was no one in the water with them. It felt almost like a dream.

Until Niall pulled his boxers off, the wet fabric slapping Louis in the face.

Louis looked at Niall in shock, as the boxers started to float away behind them. Suddenly two more pairs floated to the top of the water, Zayn and Liam smiling at each other wickedly.

“I thought we started naked,” Harry said, and that was enough for Louis to quickly pull his own boxers off, tossing them in the air so they landed in the water with a loud slap. 

They all stared at each other, no one knowing what to do now that they were all naked around each other for the first time, even if the water was covering everything.

Harry didn’t seem to notice the tension, moving to float on his back and putting everything into full view.

“Harry!” Niall yelled, covering his eyes as he tried to make his way back to shore. “You’re not supposed to come out of the water like that! Fucking gross!”

“Why?” Harry frowned, watching as all of them but Louis retreated quickly to the shore, more uncomfortable than theyshould be around each other.“Humans are weird,” he huffed, diving back under the water swimming away without a care.

*

Louis was determined when he woke up the next morning. He woke up early, earlier then he had the whole trip, and started driving before the sun even started to rise. Today was the day he was waiting for and he couldn’t wait another second for the others to wake up.

Pulling into the city, he parked outside of one of the most cowboy looking stores he could find, and before the other boys had even woken up, he had arms full of cowboy hats and boots and even a few plaid shirts.

It was his only goal for Dallas, so once he was finished he kept driving, out of the city and onto the next campsite they could find.

The water was just as hot as the day before, but he wasn’t going to let anyone stop him, so when they boys finally did wake up, he handed them all their new outfits and waited.

In the back of his mind, he thought that he maybe should have thought this through better. He could have gone back to their prior campsite, the quick access to the lake something he was desperately missing right now with the hot boots on his feet, but nothing could prepare him for the heat he felt in his body when Harry walked out of their RV.

There he was, cowboy hat and boots, the flannel shirt Louis got him, and instead of the jeans he was expecting, Harry had cut them off, his ass practically hanging out in broad daylight.

Louis had to stop himself from drooling.

The others filed out of the RV after that, laughing and taking pictures together around the new campsite. Louis tried to join them, but in every photo he couldn’t take his eyes off Harry.

Niall finally gave up after the fifth selfie with Louis not looking at the camera, and put his phone away.

“So Liam, Zayn, and I are going on a hike,” he said, eyeing Louis and Harry suspiciously.

“We are?” Liam asked. Zayn caught on quickly and wrapped an arm around Liam, nodding along.

“We are; a very long hike. But Louis’ version of long, so like two minutes,” Zayn said.

“Fuck off, all of you,” Louis groaned, but that didn’t stop him from taking Harry’s hand and dragging him into the RV.

*

When the others got back from their hike, the RV was rocking back and forth, _Rock the Boat_ playing loudly from the speakers as it did. The cowboy outfits were laying out the ground outside the door and they didn’t need to be told twice to turn around and go back where they came from.

👽

The whole drive towards Houston, Louis was miserable. He was alone in the front, the rest of the boys playing cards around the kitchen table. They had some sort of joke that Louis had yet to understand about sending Harry home.

While he was excited to go visit the space station, this was the first time he truly felt left out. Normally at least Harry would be with him, chatting his ear off in the front seat or singing along to the radio.

He knew he was acting like a brat, but he still pulled over, more rocky than he should have to make sure their cards were all thrown off the table.

“Someone else drive, I’m tired,” he announced, clicking off his seatbelt as he walked back into the RV. He slid into the table to sit beside Harry, not even caring that he was now forcing Liam out of the other side of the bench.

Zayn picked the cards back up, shuffling and dealing them out as Liam took the driver’s seat, pulling them back onto the road.

“So what was so funny back here?” Louis asked, not even trying to hide his jealousy. He wrapped an arm around Harry after that, for good measure.

“Just that we’re going to send Harry home once we get to NASA,” Niall said. He pulled his cards into his hands and fanned them out, eyeing the rest of them as he picked a card up.

“Send Harry home? Wait is this that stupid alien shit you’re on about again?”

“Your ships suck anyway. Go fish,” Harry told Niall, who frowned and grabbed another card. 

“Yeah? And yours are so much better then?” Niall asked, tossing one of his cards to Zayn who slammed a pair down onto the table.

“We’re going to be looking at garbage compared to what I’m used to. Oh, and your space suits are ugly,” Harry said. “Now, Lou, do you have any threes?”

Niall cackled at that, Zayn grinning along. Louis was just happy Harry could go along with the joke, and not seem offended. He handed Harry his three, probably a little too happy to do so because Niall caught on in an instant.

“Cheaters! Lou’s cheating so Harry will win!” Niall yelled.

“Maybe it's just my alien powers,” Harry said, raising a brow. He lost it seconds later, causing the rest of them to laugh alongside him.

“You know what? I’m done with this. I’m taking my alien boyfriend to bed,” Louis said, throwing his cards down on the table.

Harry was standing in an instant, letting Louis help him up to their bed.

“You better not fuck while we’re all in here!” Liam said, swerving the RV around the jostle them in bed.

“Rock the boat, baby.” Louis winked, sliding the curtain closed.

👽

Louis couldn’t believe how fucking _hot_ it was in Orlando. Sure, it was Florida in the middle of August, but that didn’t mean it had to be hotter than the Devil’s arse crack. Liam and Niall seemed to be feeling the same, gulping down cold bottles of water every opportunity they could get.

Zayn and Harry, however, did not seem to feel the same way.

“How are you guys not sweating to death?” Louis asked, moaning pathetically as the clouds shifted overhead and revealed the blaring sun again.

Zayn shrugged. “I don’t sweat.”

Niall’s eyes widened. “Ever?”

“Never.”

“Lucky bastard,” he sighed wistfully.

“And you?” Louis asked, turning to Harry.

Wrapped in a Mickey Mouse sweater, Harry should have been the most miserable of all of them. Instead, it seemed like it didn’t even bother him.

“I just don’t let it bother me,” he said, as if that explained _anything_. “The sun is just doing its job.”

“But how does that correlate to the fact that you aren’t sweating right now?”

“I just decide it doesn’t bother me,” Harry repeated. “And then I don’t sweat.”

“Maybe…” Louis trailed off, clearing his throat. “Maybe you are an alien.” It was mostly a joke, so he followed it with a laugh, but continued to side-eye Harry and the way he seemed comfortable in his thick sweater in the Florida summer heat.

“If I don’t eat one of those pretzels shaped like Mickey Mouse today, then it will be a failure of a day,” Liam announced.

“Has anyone ever been to Disney World before?” Louis asked. “Anyone have anything specific they want to see? As of right now, all we’ve got is Liam’s request to eat a pretzel.”

“I want a photo with Ariel,” Zayn said, stealing a sip of water from Liam’s bottle.

“Oh, I love Ariel,” Harry said, eyes distant, seemingly lost in his thoughts.

“I will forever be amazed by the pop culture things you do and don’t know,” Niall mumbled, staring at Harry before he came back to the present. Turning back to Louis, he asked, “Can we ride the teacups?”

“Alright, so the concrete plans for the day are pretzels, Ariel, and teacups. Not necessarily in that order.” Louis brought his hands together, clasping his fingers in front of him. “Should we get a move on?”

As the day dragged on, Louis only grew more amazed at the way Harry didn’t seem bothered by the heat. He didn’t complain once, even when Zayn’s forehead started to grow dewy and he finally admitted it was that hot out. Harry just bounced along, taking photos in front of everything he could, showing off his Mickey sweater.

“Harry, do you want Mickey ears?” Louis asked when they were passing a gift shop.

His face lit up, stopping in his tracks to look over at the shop. “Yes!”

He didn’t wait for any of them to make a move before darting in the entrance.

“I hope this is one of the places they sell Mickey ears,” Louis said, mostly to himself, before following Harry inside.

The others didn’t seem too keen on going into another gift store to spend even more money, so they stayed outside on a bench protected from the sun by a tall tree. Louis scanned the small shop for Harry, spotting him easily. Just like everywhere else they’d been, he’d charmed the man running the register. Louis should be unsurprised at this point at how easily Harry made friends.

“Louis!” Harry said, noticing him walk up. He reached a hand out and settled it around his waist and Louis allowed himself to be pulled into his side. “Look at my ears. I got the Minnie ones instead because I liked the pink.”

Louis couldn’t help the fond smile that split across his face. “I love them. We’ll have to get a cute picture of you in them.”

“Do you want the matching Mickey ones?” the employee asked, gesturing to the rack of them next to the counter.

“Yeah, sure. Why not?” Louis shrugged. The employee rang them up, sending them on their way with a suggestion about the best times to get in line for some of the rides they were thinking about going on.

Matching ears placed upon their heads, Louis and Harry joined their group.

“You two are sickening,” Niall said, scrunching his nose, but Louis thought he was also holding back a smile.

“Do you want your picture?” Liam asked. “You two look really cute and you can see a little bit of the castle in the background. Honestly, the lighting right here is spectacular.”

“Liam, you don’t have to convince me to be in a photo with Harry,” Louis laughed. He handed over his phone, pulling Harry in close and smashing their faces together. Liam held the phone at several angles, ensuring that he was capturing the best photo possible. Louis thought that he wouldn’t mind standing there forever, underneath the scorching sun, as long as he got to hear Harry’s giggles in his ear, quiet enough that it felt like a secret just for him.

Once Liam had decided that enough photos had been taken of the pair, he handed Louis’ phone back over to him.

“Teacups?” he asked, a hopeful smile on his face.

Harry watched the teacups as they stood in line, face apprehensive as he watched them spin around.

“Doesn’t that make people feel sick?” he asked.

“Some people,” Louis answered honestly. “I think you’ll be fine. You love riding things like this.”

Harry didn’t look like he really believed him, but didn’t say anything else. He didn’t say anything when they were buckling in either, and Louis would have forgotten about his fears if it weren’t for the way all the color drained from his face.

He reached over and grabbed Harry’s hand, giving it a tight squeeze. “Are you sure you want to do this? You’ve got about fifteen seconds to chicken out still.”

“Harry, mate, it’s just the teacups,” Niall said. “Kids love this ride. Therefore, you will love this ride.”

Harry nodded, lips pursed. “Yeah, makes sense, I guess.”

“How does that make sense?” Louis mumbled to himself, but shook his worries away.

It didn’t matter because the attendant came by and checked their seatbelts before giving the thumbs up to the operator. Harry didn’t have any more time to be afraid because the ride started spinning. He didn’t need to be afraid anyway because as the ride continued spinning, he started laughing gleefully, head thrown back as he smiled to the sky.

Louis wasn’t even focused on the ride, too preoccupied by watching the movement of Harry’s neck as he laughed and the way he kept one hand on his Minnie ears to keep them from sliding around.

The ride was over too soon for Louis’ liking; he could have stayed in their little bubble forever, listening to Harry’s laughter as they spun around and around.

“I loved that,” Harry said breathlessly. “I see why people like it now.”

With a promise that they could ride the teacups one last time before the park closed, they headed on their way to try and find some of the characters around the park. They had spotted Goofy walking around earlier and had taken a picture with him, but they hadn’t seen many others roaming around.

“Ariel’s going to be in her spot in about thirty minutes,” Zayn said, quietly, almost as if he didn’t want to be heard.

“Zayn, my friend,” Niall said, throwing an arm around Zayn’s shoulders, “we can do that for you. Everyone should get to do what they want in this magical place.”

“Magical?” Harry asked, sounding confused.

“Probably not real magic,” Liam explained. “But obviously we can’t know for sure.”

“Enablers,” Louis huffed under his breath. The last thing he needed was for them to hop on the magic train as well as the alien train. The joke wasn’t funny any longer (not that it had ever really been funny in the first place).

They stood behind a small family in line to take a photo with Ariel. One of the daughters seemed to be infatuated with Harry, tugging on the hem of his sweater until he bent down to listen to her whispers. They giggled between each other, too quiet for Louis to make out anything they were saying.

“Why do you want a photo with Ariel so badly, anyway, Zayn?” Louis asked, tearing his eyes away from the cute sight.

“Oh, she’s my sister’s favorite Disney princess,” he said. “I figured I could send a copy of the photo in my weekly letter to them. I’ve got a lot to catch them up on.”

Louis snorted. “I bet. You’ve had a bit of busy time with us.” His face softened as he added, “That’s really sweet of you.”

“Yeah, well.” Zayn shrugged, always so nonchalant.

They reached their turn in line, Zayn going first, then Niall and Liam for a group photo. Harry asked Louis if he wanted a photo together, and while he loved the idea, he figured he should take a page out of Zayn’s book and get one alone for his sisters. He didn’t need them to ask questions about who Harry was if they were to get a photo together.

Harry said something that made Ariel laugh. She tugged on one of the curls sticking out from under his Minnie ears and Louis watched as he blushed, cheeks bright pink. Louis didn’t even pretend he wasn’t thinking about pressing a million kisses to the sun kissed skin. He couldn’t lie to himself.

Ariel greeted him as he walked up, her smile bright across her face.

“He really likes you, you know?” she asked, pulling him in closer to pose for their photo.

Louis tried to keep smiling for the photo, instead of letting the shock he was feeling shine through. “Did he say that?”

“Not in so many words.”

The photographer motioned for him to continue onward, but Ariel stopped him with a gentle hand on his forearm.

“I asked him who his Mickey Mouse was, and he could barely form words,” she said. Her face turned more serious, but happiness still shone through her eyes. “His face lit up like a Christmas tree. There was just something in his eyes that you don’t always see.”

“Yeah,” Louis said breathlessly. He felt like the air had been sucked from his lungs. “He’s something special.”

The photographer yelled at them to get a move on and Louis waved his goodbyes. She slid right back into character as the next family came up to her and

Hours after the sun set and just before the park kicked everyone out for the night, they settled on an open area along the side of the pathway to watch the fireworks. Liam had finally obtained his Mickey Mouse shaped pretzel.

The concrete was uncomfortable underneath Louis, but he found he didn’t care as Harry scooped ice cream into his mouth and laughed when half of it landed on the ground.

“We spent the equivalent of a mortgage payment on this ice cream and you’re wasting it all!” Louis teased, reaching over and poking a finger in Harry’s dimple.

Harry cocked his head, obviously a little confused. “A mortgage payment?”

Louis laughed softly, not at Harry but how cute he looked when he didn’t know what something was. “Money the bank gives you to buy a house. Mortgage payments are the payments you make back to them.”

“I can’t believe houses aren’t free for you,” Harry said.

“What?” Louis asked incredulously. “Where are houses free?”

“Home,” he answered.

Louis shook his head. “Whatever you say.”

Before Harry could respond, fireworks started above them. Harry jumped at the sound, and Louis tugged him closer with a hand around his wrist. He snuggled into Louis’ side easily, curls tickling the senstive skin of his neck and jaw.

“They’re so pretty,” Harry whispered, and Louis pretended it was a secret just for the two of them.

“Yeah,” Louis said, but he wasn’t even watching the fireworks. He had seen a million fireworks in his life, but he’d never seen Harry’s face when watching fireworks, and he’d rather watch that any day.

“You’re not even looking at them,” Harry accused, glancing up at Louis. “You’re missing all of them.”

Louis bent down and pressed a kiss to his forehead. He could have stayed like that all night, Harry tucked into his side. It felt like this was all that mattered in the universe. “No, I’ve got a much better view, I promise.”

Harry didn’t say anything else, but Louis could feel the happy energy radiating from his body as he watched the rest of the show.

👽

Louis had to admit he had selfish reasons for coming to Nashville at this point. Besides the obvious taking Harry the long way around to Washington DC, he also wanted to see Harry in a cowboy hat. And watch him square dance.

Purely selfish reasons.

They had arrived late in the afternoon, heading straight for Broadway. Niall’s only request was that they went to Tootsie’s. He apparently had a friend who was there when Luke Bryan put on an impromptu show, and he was hopeful he would have the same luck. Louis didn’t have the heart to tell him that he didn’t know who Luke Bryan was and that he didn’t think they’d be seeing any famous performers at six in the evening on a Tuesday.

The bar was multi-level, with a stage on each level. They bypassed the first level, which was packed to the brim despite the time of day, and headed up to the third level. This one seemed the calmest, with a Fleetwood Mac cover band playing softly from the stage.

Harry still didn’t want to drink after his experience in Yellowstone, so he promised to watch over them while they all drank. He pressed a soft kiss to Louis’ forehead and told him to have fun and let himself go for once.

It was nice, Louis thought, just sitting down and drinking with his friends while they listened to soft music. Harry hummed under his breath and Louis found himself listening to that more than the band on stage, preferring Harry’s gentle voice.

“Do we have a plan for tonight?” Liam asked, finishing off his second drink.

“Do we ever have a plan?” Louis scoffed. “It’s like you haven’t been on this road trip at all.”

“I think we should go square dancing,” Zayn suggested, sipping his drink.

“You want to go square dancing?” Liam asked, sounding a little disbelieving.

“Yes.” Zayn shrugged. “When in Nashville, am I right?”

It turned out, taking square dancing lessons when 4/5 of them were halfway to drunk was not their best idea. And it was basically like Harry was drunk, tripping over his own feet more than Louis was in his inebriated state.

“Bump into me one more time, Curly, and I’m going to start thinking it’s intentional,” Louis teased him, poking a finger into his side.

“It’s just so complicated,” Harry complained, messing up the move again. “And I don’t even have a cowboy hat.”

Louis froze his movements. “You’re right. That’s a crime!”

“What’s a crime?” Niall asked, dancing over to them. Out of the five of them, he seemed to be picking up the steps the easiest.

“When someone does something illegal,” Harry answered him. Louis refused to find it adorable. He _refused_.

“Oh.” Niall didn’t seem to care about whether or not that was what they were really talking about and danced away again, messing up almost every step.

“Where can we get you a cowboy hat?” Louis asked, mostly to himself. Literally anywhere, Louis answered himself in his head. They were in Nashville, after all. Out loud, he told Harry he’d be right back.

He snuck out the front door, sure he wasn’t being very sneaky at all. He was in luck; there was a boot and hat shop just down the street. There was loud country music blasting from the open door and it was packed to the brim with people.

“Excuse me,” he said, pushing past several groups. “I just need to buy a hat for my friend.”

It didn’t seem like many people were seriously looking to buy, and were more so passing time, so Louis didn’t feel so bad when he bumped shoulders with almost everyone he passed. He found one of the cowboy hat displays and immediately spotted the perfect hat for Harry. He made his way to the register and paid before he headed back towards the square dancing studio.

Harry was dancing by himself, offbeat and not succeeding with any of the moves they’d been taught, when Louis returned. Louis tapped him on the shoulder, hiding the hat behind his back.

“I have a surprise for you,” he said, barely able to bite back his smile.

“Let me guess,” Harry said around a laugh. “A cowboy hat?”

“Not just any cowboy hat.” Louis revealed it from behind his back. “A pink and sparkly cowboy hat.”

Harry gasped and took it from him. “Lou, it’s perfect.”

He placed it on top of his head, giving a twirl. When he was facing Louis again, he tipped the hat and bowed to Louis. “How does it look?”

“You look beautiful as always,” Louis said honestly. He didn’t think it was possible for Harry to ever look bad.

Harry blushed under Louis’ gaze, biting his lip to hold back his smile, but his dimples still shined through.

“Lovebirds!” Niall called from across the room. “Class is over! Let’s go show off our moves at a bar?”

The teacher grimaced like she didn’t think it was such a good idea, but Louis thought it was brilliant. He grabbed Harry’s hand and pulled him onto the street in search of the closest bar. They ended up in a place that was the opposite of Tootsie’s, a nice hole in the wall that wasn’t too packed that they couldn’t breathe.

Louis and Harry abandoned their newly learned square dancing moves in favor of Louis twirling Harry around and just holding each other while they rocked slowly. It didn’t fit the music at all, but they didn’t care. They both knew their time together was coming to an end sooner rather than later, and Louis was going to take every opportunity to hold Harry close like this for as long as he could.

Just like every day and night before, it came to an end, much too soon for Louis’ liking. They stumbled back to their camper van, mostly sober by this point but definitely slap happy from lack of sleep.

Louis fell asleep, tangled in Harry’s arm and listening to his gentle snores, trying not to think about what would happen when the trip finally came to an end and their happy little bubble popped.

👽

Louisville was only just under three hours from Nashville and _basically_ on their way to Niagara Falls, so Louis justified stopping. He ignored the confused looks coming from his companions as he pulled off the highway and traveled through the city.

He came to a stop once they reached one of the college campuses, pulling into a parking spot and hopping out. Niall called after him, asking if they were taking a bathroom break, but Louis just ignored him and entered the bookstore.

He exited less than ten minutes later, small shopping bag in his hand.

“What did you buy?” Harry asked, face lighting up with excitement.

“Something for myself,” Louis said. He pulled the item out of the bag, a plain white t-shirt with “Louisville” written in red across the chest.

“What’d you need that for?” Liam questioned, leaning forward to inspect it.

“Because it says my name. Duh.” Louis put the car in drive and headed back in the direction of the highway. Within minutes, they were back on track for Niagara Falls.

👽

Halfway to Niagara, Zayn convinced Louis to let him take over driving. He couldn’t argue when his eyes stayed closed just a second too long every time he blinked. He pulled over to the side of the road, long enough for them to switch places, before they were on the road again.

Louis snuggled up into Harry’s side, placing a soft kiss on the exposed skin of his neck.

“That tickles,” Harry giggled, but made no effort to move.

“What do you want to do when we get to Niagara?” Louis whispered.

“One of those boat things,” he answered. “I think they look fun.”

“We’ll get all wet.”

“That’s okay,” Harry said. He traced his finger along Louis’ arm, leaving goosebumps in its trail. “You should get some sleep.”

“Mmkay,” Louis responded, but he was already drifting off, eyes closed and body relaxing.

Louis wasn’t sure what time it was when he finally woke up again, but Harry was no longer tucked under his arm and it looked like Niall was driving. He sat up to get a better look and regretted it as the van took a sharp turn and he tumbled back over.

Yep, it was Niall.

Once he sat up again, he noticed Harry, Zayn, and Liam sitting together and attempting to play some type of card game. He made his way over to them and plopped down next to Harry, reaching up to push a strand of hair from in front of his face.

“What are you guys playing?” he asked.

“Some game Harry is trying to teach us,” Zayn answered. “But it’s, uh, complicated? I don’t think he knows the rules.”

“I know the rules,” Harry sighed, exasperated. “I just don’t know how to tell them to you.”

“Right,” Louis said, stretching out the word. “Should we just play ‘Go Fish’ instead?”

Three rounds of Go Fish later, Louis finally thought to ask how close they were to their destination.

“Oh, probably like an hour now,” Liam said. “You were out forever.”

“I guess I needed to sleep,” Louis mumbled.

They played another round, but gave up after Zayn won for the fourth time in a row. Louis wasn’t convinced that he wasn’t cheating, but he had no proof.

The last hour passed in a blur of singing along to whatever playlist Niall selected, until they were laughing so hard it hurt to breathe. Louis held his stomach as he tried to fight back the laughter, and watched as Harry wiped away tears from his eyes. He liked seeing Harry happy like this, unapologetically himself and enjoying it.

When they finally arrived at their destination and parked, Louis wasn’t sure Niall had parked the van legally. He didn’t really care at this point.

The falls were beautiful in front of them, glimmering rainbows reflecting off the water under the sunlight. With every shift of the breeze, Louis felt mist gently kiss his skin. Even if the view had been shit, it was worth the drive just to see Harry’s smiling face as he took it all in, arms wide and face pointed towards the sun.

“There’s a boat tour in an hour,” Liam said, scrolling through something on his phone. “We can grab food from one of those places over there and I can grab us tickets online.”

There was a rumble of agreement from the group, so Liam purchased their tickets and led them in the direction of a few small restaurants to grab a quick bite to eat.

While he was used to the strange way Harry ate his food, Louis still had to make fun of him for it. The way he dove in first with his tongue, like his mouth was struggling to catch up, was too comical not to record videos of to keep for himself to watch later.

“I think I eat normal,” Harry said, pouting.

“Of course you do,” Louis said. “You think you’re normal.”

“I’m normal!” Harry protested. His lower lip stuck out even further.

Niall snorted, pushing away his empty container. “You know you’re not normal; stop lying to yourself.”

Harry laughed, but stayed silent after that.

They were offered ponchos upon climbing onto the boat, something Louis was grateful for when he remembered the way the mist reached him before he was on the water. Harry looked cute as always, blue hood covering his curls and poncho spinning out as he gave a little twirl.

“I think this is the peak of fashion,” Zayn commented, pinching the poncho between his forefinger and thumb. “Truly, I think I will never look better.”

“I know you’re kidding, but I agree with you,” Louis said, still watching Harry.

“You’re only saying that because you think Harry looks so cute in his poncho,” Zayn said, and yeah, he was right, but did he really need to say it?

Louis was happy they decided to take the tour once they started moving through the water. It was an experience he’d never had before, pulled along through the crowd by Harry until they reached the front of the boat. They watched the falls from the unique angle, a view Louis didn’t think he’d ever get to see.

Louis found that with each place they visited, the thing he loved most was watching Harry’s face light up with joy at seeing something new. Even if it wasn’t something that other people found beautiful or exciting, Harry always loved it, if only for the experience.

“You have a really bad habit of watching me instead of the view,” Harry teased, turning around and smirking.

“I just have my priorities in order.”

Louis squeezed his hand tighter, trying to capture the moment for later. He wanted to remember every second of this trip forever, but he knew that was unlikely. Over time, memories would fade from his mind. But if he was going to remember any, this was one of them.

“What are we doing after this?” Harry asked, squeezing Louis’ hand right back.

“I’m getting real tired of people asking me that question,” Louis joked.

“It’s your trip.”

“Well.” Louis shrugged, but he wasn’t sure Harry could even tell underneath his oversized poncho. “I figure we sit down and figure it out once this tour is over. I’m honestly not really sure what else there is to do here besides check out the falls.”

Harry nodded. “Well, whatever we do, I’m sure I’ll love. You haven’t messed up yet.”

As it turned out, Louis had messed up. He’d known he messed up when he was doing it, taking the long way around America to get to Washington DC, but he didn’t expect Harry to figure it out. Technically, Harry hadn’t even given him a timeline for when he wanted to get to DC.

But of _course_ Niall went and showed him a map, trying to show off all the places they’d been on their trip. Niall didn’t mean any harm by it - he thought it was cool to show Harry on a map all their destinations. This led to follow-up questions from Harry which led to him sitting down on the bench next to Louis and asking him why he’d chosen the route he had to get them to DC.

Louis shrugged. He didn’t have an answer.

“So we could see everything,” he finally said.

“Right.” Harry nodded, and Louis could see the gears working overtime in his head. “And all the stops we added just for fun?”

“Harry,” Louis pleaded, voice cracking.

“You could have talked to me,” he said. “If you wanted to do some things. It’s your trip, after all. I’m just along for the ride. You didn’t have to try and hide things from me. I thought we didn’t keep secrets from each other.”

Louis stayed silent for a moment. This was too much to process. He couldn’t tell exactly why Harry was mad, if it was because Louis had lied or because Louis was taking the long way. Maybe it was a combination of both.

“I mean, I get why you’re mad, kind of,” Louis said. “But I guess I don’t understand why you’re this upset.”

“If someone offered you a ride and then afterwards you found out they’d taken you the way that took three hours when there was a way that took ten minutes and they lied, how would you feel?” Harry’s hands clenched into fists. “I just feel a little hurt. I don’t mind roadtripping with you across America, obviously, but I would have appreciated being let in on the plan, since it wasn’t what I thought it was.”

“I didn’t know-” Louis cut himself off. “Did you not enjoy our time together?”

Harry’s face softened for a fraction of a second before hardening again. “You know I did.” He took a deep breath. “I’m going to wait in the van. We can go to New York still because that’s the plan and I know the guys are really excited, but I want to go to Washington after. No more running me all around, okay?”

Louis swallowed around the lump in his throat. “Okay.”

“Okay.” Harry nodded. He headed off in the direction of the van, not looking back.

“Okay,” Louis repeated, but there was no one around to hear it.

👽

It was easy to change their route while everyone was sleeping, and a simpler decision then Louis thought it would be. When the sign directed him to take the next exit for New York City he just... didn't.

He wasn’t sure what caused him to do it, be it the lack of sleep or the overwhelming feeling of guilt he had since leaving Niagara Falls.

He had put it off long enough; it was time to finally get Harry to Washington.

One by one, the boys started waking up, noticing the new destination on the GPS and understanding without a second thought. Niall took over driving once he was up, and Louis felt too awkward to climb into bed with Harry, so instead he sat in the front seat, letting his head rumble against the passenger window as he watched the road go by.

He wasn’t sure what would happen once they arrived, if Harry would leave them all immediately or if he would do whatever he had been planning this whole time then make his way back to the RV, ready for another adventure. Louis hoped for the latter.

They got there too quickly for Louis’ comfort, Niall pulling in and parking just as shittily as he normally did. The White House was in front of them, in full view.

“It’s whiter than I thought,” Harry said, startling them all out of their trance. Louis didn’t even know Harry was awake, let alone dressed and ready to go.

“What happened to New York?” Harry asked, eyes on Louis. He seemed to be trying to hold back a smile. One Louis wished he could return.

“I made a promise to get someone to Washington. Figured it was time to stop avoiding it,” Louis said, moving to stand up so he was eye level with Harry.

Both of them stood there, eyeing each other while having a silent conversation only they could understand. This was Louis’ way of apologising, and Harry knew that, even though it hurt both of them to lose time together.

“So what happens now?” Louis asked, awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

“I'm going to talk to the president,” Harry said, throwing open the RV door. Louis gave the other boys a weary look before following Harry out the door.

“I’ll go with him, make sure this goes okay... but maybe keep the car running,” Louis said, earning a nod from everyone before he closed the door.

It took a bit to catch up to Harry, the boy confidently making his way down the side street. There was a guest entrance there, guarded heavily. Louis figured this was where people who had scheduled tours entered, but there was no one coming in and out.

Harry walked up and whispered something to the guards and they stepped aside, and Harry turned around, waving him on. Louis followed, sure his disbelief was written all over his face. What the _fuck_ was going on? Who _was_ Harry?

There was a small reception desk once they passed through security and the metal detectors.

“Can I help you, sir?” the woman behind the desk asked, a bored look on her face.

“Yes, I have a meeting here that I'm a little late for,” Harry chuckled. The woman didn't laugh with him so he continued, “You see, I was supposed to be here two months ago, that's why it’s funny,” Harry explained.

“Name?” the woman asked, pulling up something on her computer.

“Harry E. Styles” The woman typed it in, clicking at a few things before she froze.

“Oh! Oh, Mr. Styles, we’ve been waiting for you,” she said. Louis was ready to be hauled off to jail, thinking Harry had done this before and they were waiting to finally catch the man who kept trying to talk to the president.

What he wasn’t expecting was the quick escort they got, leading them all through The White House right outside the Oval Office, the only signal they were there was the gold plaque reading Danny DeVito in beautiful cursive letters.

“He’s been expecting you, go on in,” the woman said. Louis’ jaw dropping to the floor as they were let into the office, no hassle whatsoever.

When they walked in, the president was sitting quietly at his desk writing, secret service men surrounding him as he did his work. Only when Harry coughed awkwardly did he look up.

“Oh, there you are, Mr. Styles. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I think you know,” Harry said, a slight tease in his voice.President DeVito laughed at that, leaning back in his chair.

“Okay, go on then.”

Louis didn’t know how all this was happening, but suddenly Harry gathered himself with practised ease, taking a deep breath before he started his speech, the very one Louis had heard on the beach months ago.

“Jar Kir OIL,” he started, but President DeVito stopped him with a raised hand.

“English please?” he asked. Harry let out a soft chuckle.

“Oh yeah, sorry,” he said. He took a moment, and a sip of the juice that had been brought for him almost magically. Louis still couldn’t believe any of this was happening. Harry had been serious. He needed to see the President, and the President had been waiting for him this whole time while Louis dicked around the country with him.

Harry composed himself again, and Louis could tell he was nervous by the way his eye was twitching slightly and the shakiness of his hand. That didn’t stop him though, when he took a step forward looking right at the President.

“Treat people with kindness,” Harry said, then he nodded to himself and took a step back. He smiled at Louis, like he was proud of what he had just done. But both their attentions were brought back to President Devito when he burst out laughing.

“That's it? They sent you all this way to say that?” he asked, holding a hand on his round stomach as he laughed.

Harry didn’t seem to like that, his face turning serious. “That’s the word of my people, sir, we take it very seriously.”

“Okay kid, we’ll definitely do just that,” President DeVito said, taking a moment to calm his laughter.

“I hate to cut this short, but we have a meeting with Billie Eilish, something about a bad guy,” he said, rolling his chair up to his desk. He moved a few papers around, taking a moment to find the one he was looking for.

“Ah! Here it is!” He paused. “The file they sent said you crashed your ship. They’ve sent over another one to get you home. I’ll have my men escort you there now.”

Harry seemed to take this with a nod, then they were escorted out of the room by two men in black suits and sunglasses. Everyone else was acting as though this whole situation was normal.

“Harry, what the fuck?” Louis grabbed his arm to stop him from walking. The men in front of them seemed to notice, stopping a few feet away and speaking quietly into their ear pieces.

“Was it that bad?” Harry asked, a frown coming over his face “I try my best you know? But Billie is always right after me and-”

“No, you idiot! How did you get a meeting with the President!”

“Oh, cause I’m an alien,” Harry said easily. He started walking when the men motioned them to keep going. They rounded a hall, elevator doors opening for them after scanning one of the guard’s eyes.

Louis still couldn’t form a word. It was a joke, this whole thing had to be a joke, but the man in front of him wouldn’t be scanning his eyes, allowing access into the elevator in front of them if this was all just a sick joke from Niall.

“You’ve been an alien this whole time,” Louis mumbled, mouth still unable to close from pure shock as the elevator doors slammed closed behind them, quickly heading down and sending Louis’ stomach lurching.

“Alien, Extraterrestrial, not from this earth, whatever you humans are calling it these days,” Harry mumbled. Louis couldn’t believe his eyes when the elevator doors flew open and revealed what could only be described as a giant Randy.

“My ship!” Harry yelled, running up to the thing. This one, unlike the Randy Louis was used to, was made of metal, weird lights and gadgets all around it that Louis had never seen in his life. The two eye’s in the front were something Louis would never forget though, and the fins on the side stood the same as the one Louis had tied to the roof of his van for so long.

And shit, Harry had been an alien the whole time.

The ship started up as Harry walked closer to it, even more lights flashing and the glass door opening overhead like a normal convertible. He seemed comfortable, and more in his element than he had been his entire time on Earth. The men walked up to Harry, speaking in hushed conversations Louis couldn’t hear over the loud sound of the ship, then Harry was nodding and waving them off.

“I guess this is it then,” Harry said. Louis’ stomach dove for the hundredth time that hour. This was it then, if all this was real. If Harry was an alien, it meant he was headed off, back to some far away planet Louis could never hope to see in his lifetime.

This whole time he had secretly been hoping Harry was just from some secluded island. Somewhere they could stay in contact and Louis could visit a few times a year, with Harry visiting him just as much.

Somewhere they could keep their relationship going. But this? This was it.

Harry kissed him, one last time. Louis tried to pull him closer, hoping he could do anything to make Harry stay.

It was over too quickly, and then Harry was climbing into his ship and pulling on his space suit, some glittery denim thing Louis could see Bowie wearing for a show, not exactly what he expected for space travel.

The glass roof over the ship started to close, and Louis could hear the first notes of Rocket Man playing through the speakers as gates opened up in front of the ship.

Harry looked at the men, giving them one last salute before his ship took off, faster than Louis’ eyes could keep up with.

Suddenly the room was empty. Suddenly Harry was gone.

👽

Louis was laying on the beach, the hot sand warming his back and the cold water tickling his toes. He had a rolled up towel behind his head, sunnies over his eyes, and had been laying there for hours, letting the sun tan his pale English skin to something more LA.

This time though, Louis wasn’t alone. Niall, Zayn and Liam were all lying on the sand beside him. All trying to get their own tans in, before the summer ended.

It had been a shock to all of them, but mostly to Louis, when he came back to the RV on that fateful day a week ago, without Harry.

He had still been unable to say anything, the only word they could get out of him for hours being“Alien” before he was promptly put to bed for the night, sure the rest of them were celebrating that their suspicions were right.

He hadn’t known where to go after that, none of them had, but somehow they made their way back to LA, back to where it all began.

Louis had been a mess, crying himself to sleep most nights, the others not letting him drive in fear of a car wreck. They had made it all the same, ready to stay here until the summer ended, and they were all forced to move on.

It was almost unbelievable that it had all started right here in this very spot two months ago, when Harry had washed up on the beach and changed his life forever, only to break his heart in the end. Louis didn’t regret it though, he never would.

He was started out of his thoughts with a loud slap next to him. It was hard to see with the glare of the sun, but he thought he could see someone laying on top of Niall. He turned away, figuring after all this time Niall was finally about to get some.

He was proven wrong, when he heard a loud cough and a familiar voice shouting that he had landed on the wrong man.

Louis was up in an instant, scrambling over to get the boy off Niall. He was still wearing his space suit, the glitter glinting off as he coughed and choked on the salt water, still trying to get his words out.

“Louis! I have to tell you something!” he yelled, catching the attention of a few beachgoers. He looked like a fish out of water, trying to catch his breath with his hair plastered to his face. Louis just motioned him to go on.

“I love you,” he finally said, spitting out the last of the saltwater with it. It was the most disgusting thing Louis had ever seen, but he couldn’t be happier.

“I love you too, you idiot!” Louis yelled, crashing their lips together. He didn’t care about the salt, the only thing that mattered was that Harry was finally in his arms again.

Their reunion ended quickly, with the tide coming in again and washing over their things. Only this time, Louis knew what to do.

He grabbed his beach bag, grabbing Harry’s hand as he dragged him up the beach, only stopping when they were clear of the water, with the others quickly trailing behind him.

“Not to ruin this whole thing, but how the hell did you get here?” Niall asked, giving Harry a hug.

“Randy brought me back,” Harry said simply. “They sent me another one because mine was destroyed when I landed here, but I couldn’t go back. The moment I left, it just felt wrong.”

“And you came back?” Louis clarified, awe in his voice. He couldn’t believe it. Here was this wonderful man who had literally traveled through _space_ to be with him. “You’re really back?”

“Yeah, I’m really back.” Harry nodded before his lips turned downward. “I was sad to lose Randy again, though.”

“How?” Niall asked, a puzzled look on his face.

“I crashed into the ocean again,” Harry explained. “On purpose this time, so I could get to you guys. Randy isn’t meant to survive that. He kept me alive, but died in the process of saving me. I was sad to lose Randy again, but it was worth it though,” Harry said, eyeing Louis.

“Are they all called Randy?” Niall asked.

“Well yeah, what else would they be called?” Harry asked, wrapping Louis’ towel around himself to try and dry off some. Louis wrapped his arms around him, trying to warm him up from the cold ocean water.

“Another name? I guess.” Louis laughed as they walked; he couldn’t believe Harry was standing in front of him. That the nonsense he had fallen in love with had come back so quickly.

“Randy’s not a name. It stands for Radical and Nifty Dispatch Yonder. Did you think the whole time that I just went around giving things random names?”

“Yeah, and he also thought you were human,” Niall laughed.

“Well that’s just stupid,” Harry said.

“Oh we know,” Liam said, throwing the RV door open. Zayn and Niall piled in behind him.

Harry stopped Louis before he could follow.

“I was serious you know. The second I left, I regretted it. Didn’t even make it out of the Milky Way before I turned around and came back for you.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Louis confessed.

“I do,” Niall said, interrupting them again. “Lou, where to next!”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> For more fics like this, or just a chat, reach out to us [Here](https://slowlyseducedbycurls.tumblr.com/) and [Here](https://adoredontour.tumblr.com/)


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